


Kylo Ren and the Scavenger

by yodalorian



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Guns, Infidelity, Lightsabers, Lovers to enemies to lovers, Marriage, Mildly Dubious Consent, Police, Reconciliation, Smoking, semi-consensual kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:53:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24924184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodalorian/pseuds/yodalorian
Summary: By day, Rey is the beautiful wife of the rich and handsome Ben Solo. By night, she is the Scavenger, the vigilante protector of the city of Coruscant. But when a mysterious nemesis known as Kylo Ren emerges, Rey's worlds begin to collide and her deepest relationships will be tested.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 43
Kudos: 83





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi. this is my first completed multi-chapter work. lots of energy and a good amount of anxiety went into this, so here's to hoping it doesn't suck
> 
> updates every friday
> 
> disclaimer! cops are a pretty important part of the story. i started writing this before the recent wave of blm protests and before i educated myself on the police. i don't want this to be copaganda, but i've decided to leave the story as is because cops are a major part of the superhero genre i'm going for. i hope everyone's okay with that. acab and abolish the police!

“Congratulations, Ben Solo, and thank you for your contributions to this city.”

Applause rumbles through the air as photography flashes light up the stage, briefly casting Ben and Leia in brilliant white. None, though, are as bright as their beaming smiles. Leia pins a medal to Ben’s breast pocket, then, in a rare drop of professionalism reserved only for her son, the mayor quickly lands a kiss on his cheek. He embraces her, and the reporters eat it all up for their blog posts.

“Yay!” Rey throws her arms around Ben’s neck once he manages to extract himself from the tangle of spectators and get away. Grinning, he quickly kisses her, coming away with a smudge of bright red lipstick.

“Wow,” she breathes, inspecting the shiny gold medal on her husband’s chest. The Calrissian Philanthropy Award. “You really do give this city a lot of money, don’t you?”

Ben simply shrugs. “Not everyone has the privileges I did.”

Rey smiles. “This is why I love you.” She turns to wade back into the crowd, but Ben remains still.

“Aren’t you coming to the reception? You’re sort of the man of the hour here.” Something passes over Ben’s face, a shadow briefly darkening his features. But it is gone in an instant, and the sunny smile returns.

“No, not today. You go ahead.”

“Oh,” Rey says, a little deflated. “I guess I’ll see you at home, then?”

He nods and turns away, disappearing surprisingly quickly into the shadows. Rey joins the party, letting the mingling of the elite and the hors d'oeuvres push the conversation out of her mind.

* * *

Hazy in the distance, the sun settles down for the night. Streetlights begin to flicker on as the cool evening air curls around her, making the long tan cloth strips wrapped around her flutter. The HUD within her goggles flickers to life, instantaneously scanning everything she sees, automatically recording temperature, distance, movement, and a thousand other variables.

“You ready?” Rose’s voice comes in through her earpiece, as crisp as if she was standing next to Rey. Anchor is the best word Rey has to describe Rose. Rose plays mechanic, medic, therapist, and best friend all at once. Rey’s girl in the chair.

“Yeah.”

“Alright. System’s detecting tech theft on the intersection of Niima and Takodana. Making a getaway in trucks.”

“On it.” Rey fires a grappling hook into the evening sky, trailing a thin silver wire. With it, the Scavenger soars into action, ready to protect the city of Coruscant once more.

She runs over roofs and leaps from building to building, feeling the wind whip past her even through the cloth and armor that covers every inch of skin. Rey can’t help laughing a little. The weightlessness is absolutely freeing.

Soon, she spots the trucks. They’re swerving wildly through the street, forcing cars and pedestrians to scramble out of the way. Police cars are following, but there’s no way they’ll catch up.

Rey tenses for a moment, feeling energy build in the specialized boots Rose built. She flies like a swan, arcing over the street and landing almost silently on the last truck.

Quickly falling into muscle memory, she moves to the back of the truck and becomes weightless for a second as she breaks open the doors and throws herself inside. Confused thugs glare at her, scrambling off of piles of very expensive-looking machinery.

“Hey,” she smirks. They draw out pistols, but Rey is far faster than any of them. In one fluid motion, she pulls a canister off her belt, and it extends into a bo staff. Their skulls crack against the hard metal as she dances around them gracefully. The few bullets that do hit her ping harmlessly off her armor, her HUD instantly analyzing trajectories and helping her move out of the way. In a matter of seconds they’re battered and groaning in the middle of the street. Soon Rey dispatches the driver as well and moves on to the next truck, leaving the mess for the police to deal with.

She methodically makes her way through the line of trucks: jump, land, break, fight, jump. It’s effortless. As she perches on another rusted ceiling, she realizes she’s at the front of the line. It’s the last one.

Suddenly, a horrible grinding noise bursts from the back of the truck, forcing her to stumble back a little. A hand, gloved completely in black, whips out of nowhere, gripping the lip of the roof. The metal groans, giving way. 

A man pulls himself out of the truck to join her, clad in dark armor. A cape whips around his shoulders as the truck continues to careen down the street. The most unsettling part is his helmet, shiny and smooth and expressionless, a good head taller than her.

“Rose?” Rey tries to keep her voice as level as she can. “Who the hell is that?”

“I don’t know,” Rose replies, panicked. “He doesn’t show up on any databases.”

Rey shifts into a fighting stance, raising her staff. The man simply continues to stare at her. She can’t see his eyes, but she can feel them boring into her.

She flinches a little as some sort of energy blade ignites in his hand, violent red and spitting lightning and sparks. Two smaller blades also appear, like a bizarre crossguard. Is he trying to play knight?

Rose’s fast breaths come through Rey’s comm, but there is no time to ask what his weapon is. All she knows is that she definitely does not want it near her. 

Suddenly, he moves toward her, faster than he looks like he could move. Rey manages to leap over his head and out of the way. When she looks back, the truck is scarred with glowing molten orange. So that’s what that thing does.

He whirls around, slashing at her relentlessly. Rey dodges as best as she can, but she’s quickly growing short of breath. Sparks swirl around her like a deadly blizzard, and she can’t get a single hit in. She raises her staff to parry, but his blade slices through it like a knife through a stick of butter. Soon, she’s left with nothing but melting iron pieces in her hands.  _ Shit. Shit. Shit.  _

As the angry blade swings down at her once again, and she’s certain it won’t miss this time, suddenly the world is knocked over. Sky and earth tumble together into a disorienting blur, and something is terribly, awfully deafening. When everything stops spinning, she finds herself flat on her stomach in a dirty alley. The man looms over her, but police officers are filling in the ends of the alley. He’s surrounded. Looking at her for one last, strangely long moment, he disappears into the shadows.

Groaning, Rey picks herself up. She’s gonna be bruised tomorrow morning. She pushes past the police, trying to figure out whatever the hell happened. She finds the truck is a mangled, flaming wreckage, disemboweled and contents strewn across the freeway. A car sits next to it, the whole front end shattered. A woman leans on the roof, pink hair floating around her head. When she sees Rey, she breaks into a wide grin.

“Did you...did you crash your car into the truck?” Rey asks, stunned. The woman looks vaguely familiar. Halda?

“Yup.” Holdo. That’s her name. One of Leia’s assistants and longtime friend. She’s a bit of a...free spirit.

“Why?”

Holdo shrugs. “You looked like you needed the help.” There is a crazy glint in her eyes. Mumbling thanks, Rey takes to the roofs once again. There’s always too much of a mess afterwards.

* * *

“Hey,” Rey says breathlessly as she drops into the old warehouse she and Rose had set up shop. She pulls off her goggles and head wrappings, but Rose looks like the one who just came back from battle. Her face is sallow and glistens with sweat.

“You okay there?” Rey asks as she pulls off the rest of her armor.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Rose is staring at her computer monitor, which is filled with pictures of Rey’s mysterious new adversary.

“Any clues?”

“None at all.” Rose rests her face in her hands. “I’ve scoured police reports and news articles and surveillance footage. It’s like this guy appeared out of nowhere.”

“Huh.” Rey drops into a chair next to Rose’s desk. “Anything else?”

“Yes.” Rose’s face lights up, the way it did when she got her hands on a piece of cutting-edge tech. “His lightsaber.”

“His light-what?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know what a lightsaber is!” Rose’s fingers quickly pull up pictures. Rey studies the glowing blades. They look both like they’re from ancient legends of another realm and something that will only be developed after a few hundred years.

“They’re powerful weapons, alien tech actually. Super rare. The last time one was on Earth was in this city, actually.” Rose finds grainy footage, a few decades old. Rey recognizes Luke Skywalker, legendary superhero and Leia’s brother. His lightsaber is bright blue, like a sunny sky. Rey can almost feel the confidence radiating from the picture, and absentmindedly wondered what it would feel like to be able to do the things Luke could do. But he had strangely vanished a few years ago, and his majestic weapon with him. Leaving a void Rey now had to fill.

“So, you think masked mystery man is an alien?” Rey asks.

Rose chews her lip. “I don’t know.” She gets up, moving towards her workbench. “I’ll think about it while I work, I guess.”

“Whoa whoa whoa hold on.” Rey glances at the clock; it’s nearing midnight. “Rose, when was the last time you slept?”

Rose doesn’t answer. That’s a bad sign. Rey takes her by the shoulders, gently steering her towards the door.

“No, stop,” Rose mumbles, weakly resisting. Her fingers grasp the air, reaching towards her latest project, a glider that would allow Rey to soar if she fell from a high elevation. “If the Scavenger falls from a skyscraper or something I don’t want to be the one who killed her.”

“Rose, I’ve never needed a glider yet and I won’t tomorrow. Get some rest.”

“Ugh, fine.” Collapsing into Rey’s arms, Rose allows herself to be dragged out the door.

* * *

It’s past 1 AM when Rey finally gets home. Ben’s fast asleep already. He smells faintly of sweat. Perhaps he had hit the gym. She curls up next to him, and he sleepily pulls her closer. She always loves how perfectly her head fits under his. Nestled in his arms, Rey drifts off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m heading out, okay?” Rey calls, fastening an earring.

Ben appears from the kitchen where he had been cleaning up breakfast. “Where are you going?”

“Starkiller Expo? I thought I told you. I managed to get a pass for Rose and I to go see their famous new deep space telescope, or something like that.” Spent a couple hundred dollars on it too.

His face briefly twists in concern. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why?” She looks into his eyes. “Is something wrong?”

“No. Never mind.” He crosses his arms, turning away and heading back into the kitchen. “Have fun.”

* * *

Rose is as giddy a child in a candy shop as they enter the convention center. They’re surrounded by the most cutting edge technology, stuff the rest of the world will take years to catch up with. Computers a thousand times more powerful than the human brain, robots that can go where no human can, aircraft and spacecraft that go higher and faster and further.

Rey is dragged along behind Rose, but she can’t focus. The conversation with Ben stays in the back of her mind, nagging her, unsettling her.

Finally, it’s time for the telescope presentation. They are ushered into an auditorium, a high vaulted glass ceiling illuminating the room with filtered sunlight. As they wait for the presentation to begin, Rose squirms a little in her seat. 

“You ok?” Rey asks.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” Rose fiddles with her glasses. “You seem to fit in.”

Rey tries a laugh. “What are you talking about? Everyone’s a nerd here.”

Rose merely makes a small gesture to the people around them. Rey glances around: everyone in impeccably tailored suits, with shiny shoes and ostentatious watches. She glances at herself in a white, cleanly pressed pantsuit, the fashion she had adopted after she married Ben. And Rose, in a T-shirt and jeans.

Is Rose...no, that couldn’t be what Rose meant. Rey is an orphan. A nobody. An orphan nobody who had married into the city’s richest family and whose husband won an award a week ago for having so much money that he had to give it away and who had paid hundreds of dollars to get into this presentation like everyone around her.

The front of the room lights up and the presenters enter, carrying the telescope. Rey can’t concentrate as they rattle off statistics, data, the great advancements for astronomy this will bring. Rose is completely enraptured.

As the presentation winds down, huge glittering droplets begin raining from the sky. Rey snaps out of her reverie when the screaming begins. They’re inside. That’s not water; it’s glass.

The glass ceiling crashes to the floor, bringing a visitor with it. The masked man looms silently, the telescope knocked to his feet as if it’s a gift, as the room erupts into chaos. 

The audience transforms into a panicked mob, rushing towards the doors like an unstoppable avalanche. Rey pulls Rose to her feet, but the stampede is impossible to move through. With a yelp of pain, Rose collapses, her ankle twisted at an unnatural angle. Overwhelmed as the world falls apart, Rey can do nothing other than sink down next to Rose.

Groaning echoes through the rapidly emptying room. Rey looks up to see the destabilized roof continue to collapse. Screeching, a chunk of twisted metal and glass pulls itself free, hanging suspended in the air for a moment before plummeting, straight towards them.

There’s nothing she can do. Rey tries to shield Rose’s body with her own, as best as she can, and waits for darkness to hit.

Instead, she feels blistering heat pass over her for a second with a harsh sizzle. When she opens her eyes again, she lies in a ring of melted shards, the lightsaber returning to the masked man’s hand. Had he saved her? She stares at him, 20 feet away, as if he would give an answer. But his mask is as silent as ever.

The adrenaline starts to kick in. Shakily, Rey manages to carry Rose to an alcove where she’ll be relatively sheltered. She pulls upon Rose’s backpack, tearing through it, breathing a sigh of relief when she finds Scavenger armor stuffed into the bottom. 

“Listen, man, I...I don’t know what you want,” the presenter stammers, on his hands and feet, trying to move away from the masked man. He’s been sliced with a thousand tiny cuts, and the slightest movement stings like hell.

The masked man raises his blade, the blazing tip a centimeter away from the presenter’s nose. “Tell me where your warehouses are.” His voice is deep and distorted.

The presenter manages to croak out a laugh. “That’s classified info. What, you hired by a competitor or something?”

The masked man advances until his lightsaber is nearly laid against the presenter’s neck. His skin begins to burn. “Your warehouses. Now.”

The presenter merely stares back with a sudden surge of foolish defiance. Losing patience, the masked man raises his lightsaber. Rey leaps from the rafters, slamming into him and pushing him away. The presenter begins to slowly crawl away, leaving a trail of blood.

Despite how heavy he is, he always manages to land on his feet, like a cat. “Who are you?” Rey hisses.

The mask turned to face her. “They call me Kylo Ren.”

She’s momentarily caught off-guard by the straight answer, but quickly regains her composure. “What are you doing here?”

But again, he is as stoic and silent as a statue. Rey shifts on the balls of her feet, ready to pounce like a lioness. Fine. If he didn’t want to answer, she would make him.

She lunges, planting her boot heel firmly in the center of his mask. Kylo stumbles backwards but regains his balance. He slashes with his saber; Rey barely dancing out of the way. She’s lost her staff and it wouldn’t be much use against his blade anyway.

She attempts to entangle him with cable, but the lightsaber snaps it like thread next to a flame. Flying towards him, Rey charges up her gauntlets and blasts him with electricity. He is thrown back but drives his lightsaber into the wooden floor, slowing his skid and filling the air with acrid smoke.

Untiring, the scarlet blade bears down on her, again and again. A second too slow and it catches her, searing pain screaming across her upper arm. Biting her tongue to stifle a scream, Rey drops to her knees, hot tears coming.

Kylo turns away, extinguishing his lightsaber. He isn’t here to kill her. So what is he here for?

As if he can read her mind, he strides to the telescope, studying it. Gripping it, he tears off a chunk, wires snapping and sparking. “Such intricate machinery,” he muses. “Must’ve taken many years.”

“You’re not getting away with that,” Rey hisses. Summoning energy from somewhere deep in her core and pushing through the agony, she lunges at him. Fluidly, still holding the piece of telescope, he stops her. Rey finds herself trapped against his chest, held by his strong arms. She can feel muscle shifting behind her, like being held against a warm wall. He smells like smoke.

The police charge in, finally. Kylo leans in, so close she thinks she can feel his breath through the mask. “See you later, Scavenger.” He releases her, tossing the piece of telescope to her. She barely manages to catch it, and he’s gone.

Captain Finn holsters his gun and runs up to her. She’s worked with him before and they’ve even become friends when Rey isn’t a superhero, but right now she’s too tired to talk. Rey thrusts the telescope piece at him and begins striding away.

“Wait, hold on, Scavenger, this is a crime scene--” 

“Figure it out yourself, Finn,” she shoots back. Her mind is spinning. She wants to lie down.

Finn sighs. “You want our medics to at least check that out?”

Rey holds her arm gingerly. It’s dulled into a low, hot burn. “I can take care of myself.”

* * *

“Oh my God, Rey, when I heard the news--” Ben is on top of her as soon as she opens the door, concern filling his brown eyes. She tries to fight him off, but it’s no use as he carries her to the kitchen table. She lets him take off her jacket, watches his face freeze in shock as his eyes land on her angry red scar.

For a moment, he says nothing, merely running his thumb along the edge of the wound. Rey’s been with him long enough to know that when his face becomes still and silent like that, he’s thinking. Turning things over in his mind, trying to figure something out. She wishes she could enter her husband’s head and learn what, but she is no wizard.

Ben carefully bandages the wound, working meticulously and silently. His fingers deftly wrap the gauze, but his face remains stony. Hours later, Rey lies wide awake in bed, with Ben softly snoring next to her. The day’s events won’t let her fall asleep. Kylo Ren remains at the forefront of her thoughts, whoever he is, whatever he wants. When she lets her mind wander, it inevitably returns to the way his arms felt around her, the way his voice tickled her ears. Try as she might, she can’t remove him. He remains lodged in her mind, an embarrassing obsession. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	3. Chapter 3

Rey’s phone buzzes, a text lighting up the screen. Unknown Sender. Something in her gut knows exactly who it’s from. It merely states, curtly:  _ On top of City Hall. 8:00 PM.  _

“Who is it?” Ben mumbles, mouth full of chips. His eyes remain fixated on the TV show they’re watching. 

“Wrong number,” Rey softly lies. She drops the phone in her lap without responding and drops her head against the back of the couch. She’s only seen Kylo a few times in the weeks since he quite literally crashed the Expo. The Scavenger had stayed home as much as possible while Rose’s ankle healed, despite her insistence that she could still do everything she needed to. Still, it seems like Rey is inexplicably drawn to Kylo, to his quiet intensity, to the ferocity she could feel bubbling just under the surface.

* * *

The moon hangs low in the sky as the sunlight fades and the stars appear. Rey perches on a building several blocks from City Hall, but her goggles are more than capable of focusing in and picking out the tiniest details on the building. She’s switched off her earpiece. Rose doesn’t need to know about this little mission.

Sure enough, Kylo is there, his cloak swaying in the breeze. He almost seems to melt into the emerging night. Her HUD detects no traps. He doesn’t turn when Rey softly drops in behind him, but she can almost feel him sense her.

“What do you want?” Rey snaps.

“Why do you ask me that every time we see each other?” Kylo asks, almost sounding amused. If someone like him could be amused.

“I don’t have time to play games.”

“I don’t want to play a game. Can’t we simply...talk?”

Rey scoffs. “I’m not your friend.”

“Good. I don’t want to be friends.” A moment hangs between them, heavy and silent. He gestures at her arm. “How’s your wound?”

“Why do you care?” Rey snarls. “You gave it to me.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“You didn’t mean to?” Her voice rises. “Where were you aiming for then?”

“That’s not what I meant. That was before...that’s not what I meant.” Kylo is briefly speechless. Rey takes a small satisfaction from it.

He moves away from her towards the edge of the roof, peering down below. The street is painted with golden light, people moving through the nightlife, unaware of what was happening above their heads. They look like ants. Finally, he asks, “Why do you do it? You sacrifice so much for these people who will never thank you. Will never know your name.” His voice is unexpectedly softer.

Rey slowly comes up next to him, watching the ants scurry below. “They’re....people. They’re parents and siblings and children and friends. They have people who love them and who they love. Just like me. I would want someone to protect my family.” She looks at Kylo’s mask, as if she can see through it. “Don’t you have people you love?”

“Just one.” His voice is unbearably weighty. “And she doesn’t need my help.”

They stand together, the cool night air flowing past them. He still smells like smoke. With a sharpness to it, but not bitter. A strange feeling forms in Rey’s sternum. She becomes aware of her breathing and her heartbeat. For the briefest, wildest moment, she imagines grabbing him, tearing off that helmet, touching him.

He abruptly pulls away, making her jump a little. Rey shrinks into herself a little as Kylo walks away from her, his back to her again. “We’re different than all of them, Scavenger. We’re better than all of them.”

“What are you saying?”

He turns, his voice suddenly filled with rising passion. “We can destroy it all. We could rule it all. Together, we could be unstoppable. We would be more powerful than anyone, even the Skywalkers.”

“If this is your big villain monologue for me to join you, not a chance.”

“No. Not yet.” He holds out his hands towards her. “Just...an understanding.”

Rey stays exactly where she is, arms folded.

“We’re not like them.” Kylo’s voice softens. “They’re insignificant. They don’t matter. But us, Scavenger...we can change the world. Together.”

Rey tenses. Kylo senses he’s made a mistake. “I was insignificant,” she whispers. Anger rises, hot in her chest, but mixed with grief. She tries to force out the cold loneliness bubbling up again, but it never quite leaves. Stupid Kylo Ren. Stupid Kylo Ren and the stupid bizarre ways he makes her feel. A shockwave explodes from her gauntlets, pushing him back. 

His lightsaber erupts to life, growling. It swings at her with the blinding speed she is all too familiar with by now, but this time it feels different. The slashes feel a little more unfocused, a little slower. The blade slams against the marble of the building thunderously, sparking and marring the perfect white.

He suddenly swings at her head, lightning fast. Rey’s legs lock, refusing to move. She can feel the searing heat on her nose, unbearable for a second and fading into iciness. Slowly, she becomes aware that her face is uncovered and shattered goggles and pieces of cloth lay at her feet, edges curling and singed.

Had he tried to kill her? Had she been saved by the rarest chance of fate? No. Rey knows Kylo does everything with surgical precision.

Rey wants to scream, but she feels like she’s being strangled. Her wide, uncovered eyes meet his lifeless mask. If he’s surprised at all by the revelation of her identity, he doesn’t show it. 

She continues to stumble backward, rattled and hyperventilating. A thousand voices scream in her head. She fires every one of her gadgets at him, but he is as unstoppable as a tank. Kylo doesn’t even slow, his deadly saber held high, advancing before him like a herald.

Suddenly, Rey trips. Suddenly, there is nothing behind her or below her except for the wide open night. And just as suddenly, strong arms are around her again, just as she remembered, keeping her from plummeting.

Kylo’s smooth mask is centimeters away from her face. His black cloak wraps around her, shielding her from the wind for a moment. The lower portion of his mask slides upward and lips press against hers.

Rey doesn’t know what she expected to find under that mask. A robot, perhaps, or a ghost, or a zombie. But he is warm and faintly sweet and somehow so familiar, and Rey is helpless under her most carnal desires. She forgets everything and wants to do nothing except stay there forever, wrapped in his embrace, drinking him in.

It ends just as abruptly as it began. Before she knows it, Rey is slouched on the roof, alone, shivering in the cold. He’s gone, as if he was never anything more than a fading dream.

Rey draws a ragged breath, her shoulders shuddering. What the hell is she doing? She is married, for heaven’s sake. Married to the best man on the planet, and here she is kissing a stranger on top of a roof at night and daydreaming about him like she’s fourteen. Married to a man whose life could be in jeopardy right now, and yet still, her mind lingers, something about Kylo, his rawness…

She shakes her head violently, as if that would somehow shake the memories off and let them be blown away. He stubbornly remains, as always. His offer, too. Rey had refused it, but now a tiny voice in her mind reminds her that it’s what she’s been searching for her entire life. What if she doesn’t even have to play the cards she’s been dealt, but throw them away altogether? Show everyone what an orphaned nobody can really do.

Rey curls up into a ball. She doesn’t have any of the answers she needs and she doesn’t know where to find them. She feels naked, small, vulnerable. The icy air bites at her exposed skin. Why had she even decided to become a ridiculous superhero anyway? She doesn’t want to protect the city. She wants to have a nice, normal, boring life. She wants to sleep.

The sound of footsteps faintly drift up.  _ Crap.  _ Rey drags herself up, hurriedly tearing off her armor. With her mask gone, there’s no way to conceal her identity now. She pushes the pile behind her as the door to the roof opens and through walks...Leia.

“Hi,” Rey manages to choke out. Leia looks at her quizzically, studies her shivering in her threadbare tank top and shorts. The older woman graciously decides not to ask.

Leia tucks a strand of graying hair back into her bun, still perfect after a long day of solving the city’s problems. She moves to the edge of the roof, something in her movement strangely like Kylo’s. “You come up here to think too, Rey?”

“Yeah.” Rey was still trying to find her voice. “Yeah.”  _ I come up here to think, in my underwear. _

A moment passes as Leia looks up at the stars and Rey tries to quiet her heartbeat. Finally, Leia speaks. “Is everything alright, Rey?”

“Yep!”

“Okay.” Leia pretends to believe her, though Rey knows Leia sees through everyone. As if Rey’s tear-streaked face and lounging on roofs in her underwear at night isn’t enough evidence. “If there’s something you need to talk about though...you know you can always come to me, right?”

Rey breathes softly. “I know.”

“Good.” Leia smiles. “Good. I know you’ve had a rough past, Rey, but I’d like for us to be your family now. Whatever you need, when you’re ready, I’m here for you.”

Leia looks at Rey with something in her eyes that Rey has never seen before. Suddenly, Rey feels tears welling up. She could do nothing but nod.

“Now let me drive you home before you catch a cold out here.” Leia laughs a little at herself. Once a mother, always a mother. Rey begins walking quickly towards the door, hoping Leia would follow. But Leia’s hand rests on Rey’s arm, stopping her.

“Aren’t you forgetting your...bundle?” Leia’s finger gestures towards the small crumpled pile of cloth and armor.

“Oh, right.” Rey laughs nervously. “My bundle.”

* * *

Rey watches Leia’s car drive away, the headlights piercing the night and leaving darkness in their wake. Inside, Ben is still awake, reading in bed.

She mumbles a greeting as she drops onto the covers, exhaustion suddenly hitting her like a truck. Ben leans over, landing a soft kiss on her cheek. And another. And another, moving down her neck.

Rey gently pushes him away. His face reddens. “Oh. Sorry.”

“No, don’t...it’s just that...not tonight.” Rey sighs. Even forming a complete sentence feels too hard now. She couldn’t, not tonight, with her perfect loyal husband. Not when she feels like Kylo Ren lurks in the shadows and she knows he lurks in her dreams. Not when she can still smell smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda shorter chapter but it's a heavy one

“You ready to head out?” Rey reaches out and fixes Ben’s tie.

He has that look in his eyes again. Haunted, almost. Like there is a war brewing behind them. Rey almost wants to ask if he’s okay, but she’d sound crazy asking why his eyes have turned into deep dark chasms.

Ben tries a smile, but the look doesn’t leave. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

* * *

Rey rests her forehead against the cold glass of the car window, watching the streetlights streak past and leave tails like comets, with the occasional campaign sign. The mayoral election is heating up, but only like something left on the counter to thaw. Leia is beloved and sure of reelection, and only someone insane would run against her. Someone insane had shown up that year. Some red-haired kid with the last name Hux and a first name that should’ve been left behind in the 18th century.

Rey hadn’t really paid attention to him, only watched a speech or two on YouTube. Just a bunch of nonsense about how Leia was running the city into the ground. The debate they are going to now is really just a formality, but necessary all the same.

They settle into their seats, watching the two politicians take to their podiums. Leia, graceful and elegant, seemingly at home in the stage lights like always. Hux, on the other hand, is ghostly pale with a permanent scowl, his suit almost oversized as it hangs on his thin frame.

The debate begins as expected. Leia eloquently defends her positions, while Hux is nearly frothing at the mouth. As Rey becomes bored by the debate, her attention is drawn to Ben beside her. His knuckles are stark white, gripping the armrest. He sits rigidly, glaring straight ahead with a strange fervor. She follows his gaze to Hux, who doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to the debate he’s supposed to be in, instead constantly allowing his gaze to rove over the darkened audience. Like he was searching for something. Or maybe someone. 

Rey places her hand on Ben’s. He doesn’t seem to notice, and she can feel him, cold and trembling. Hux begins to fidget nervously, almost impatiently. As she opens her mouth, asking whispered concern, a deafening roar erupts. And the world goes dark and silent.

* * *

Shapes swim before her, blurry and amorphous. Bright and dark bleed together as everything spins in a delirious dance. Someone screams from very far away. A low roar echoes through her head, like she’s trapped in a pack of lions. They’re ready to feast. Someone is humming in her ear, just one note. She wishes they would stop.

Rey becomes dimly aware that she’s floating. No, not floating exactly. She jerks through the air, up and down, to an unheard uneven beat. Arms are around her again.  _ Kylo Ren  _ is on her lips, half-formed.

The ground comes up to meet her, embracing her. Slowly, a face comes in focus in front of her. Ben. He’s streaked with blood and dirt, and his clothes are torn. “Stay here,” he says. His voice is coming from deep underwater. Rey weakly nods. She can do nothing but stay here. She tries to beg him to stay with her, but her tongue feels too heavy and her hands fall limply at her side and she wants to sleep and he’s already gone. 

Gradually, the haze of unconsciousness begins to melt away. Still, Rey can do nothing but stay huddled where Ben left her. Sirens wail and shouts run together with the screams, but the Scavenger feels like a distant dream now. 

Something harsh is hammering into her eyelids. She lifts her eyes towards the painful brightness. The stage is engulfed in flame, carpet dissolving into choking smoke. Hux has vanished, like he was never more than a shadow who has been chased away by the flame now. But Rey can see Leia, crumpled and lifeless and helpless, and impossibly small. Rey weakly reaches out a quivering hand, but Leia might as well be on the other side of an uncrossable chasm.

Like a demon out of a nightmare, Kylo Ren emerges from the darkness. Silently, the phantom drifts unharmed through the flames, formed out of smoke and dissolving into smoke. A bolt of bloody lightning forms in his hand, and he raises the lightsaber high. Rey can see it now, the beautiful graceful arc that has its endpoint buried in Leia’s heart.

She tries to scream, but it feels like the very air has betrayed her and she can’t breathe. Hot tears mingle with blood until she can’t tell what’s dripping from her face. Her limbs have turned to lead and her heart to stone.  _ No. Not Leia.  _ She feels like the floor is slipping away and she’s falling back down into the abyss. She tries to tear her eyes away but she can’t.

Slowly, like a dream, Kylo’s mask turns, barely, but enough that his invisible eyes pierce her again. Its silver edges glint in the harsh firelight.  _ Please.  _ He can’t hear her, but she begs all the same.  _ Please.  _

The lightsaber trembles at the peak of its arc. Lightning curls around it, eager to strike the killing blow. But it doesn’t get the chance. It begins to descend back where it came from, as if going backwards in time. The last image Rey sees, burned into her mind, even after her eyes close, is the monster forlorn and subdued.

* * *

_ Beep. Beep. Beep.  _ It’s the only sound in the quiet room, keeping track of the seconds that slip away. Rey focuses on it, because everything else feels like it might slip through her fingers like a reflection on water’s surface.  _ Beep. Beep. Beep. _

Grief settles over her, like the ash that still coats her throat has spread through her bloodstream. She shouldn’t be grieving. Leia is here, right in front of Rey, her gray hair spread around her head like a halo. But she feels paper thin, like she could crumple at any second, as if someone has come along and stolen her vitality. Rey didn’t even know such a thing was possible. She would have believed Leia dead if not for the heart rate monitor, tirelessly keeping time.  _ Beep. Beep. Beep.  _ Still, Rey grieves.

Ben’s passed out on the couch in the small hospital room, and though Rey is exhausted she knows there is no way she will fall asleep. She rubs her bloodshot eyes, stifling a scream. Kylo intrudes into her thoughts again. Attraction and desire curdle into hatred, and it’s the purest, strongest thing she has ever felt. It’s so powerful it scares her a little. She would pay him back every bit of pain he gave her.

She numbly holds her phone to her ear, and after a few rings, Rose’s voice groggily comes through. “Rey? It’s 3 AM. Are you okay?”

Rey is silent for a moment. And then, quietly, venomously. “I’m going to figure out who Kylo Ren is. And then I’m going to kill him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	5. Chapter 5

Rey’s eyes burn and her head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton, but she doesn’t move. She continues flicking through thousands of images and police reports. She’s scoured the system Rose built from data Finn gave them, and has found nothing. Still, she desperately searches.

Suddenly, the computer screen dissipates into black. “What the hell?” Rey turns, snapping.

Rose calmly holds Rey’s furious gaze, the power cord dangling from her hand. “It’s 2 AM. Your last break was six hours ago.”

“I’m fine.”

Rose takes in the uneaten sandwiches next to Rey and the drained thermos of coffee. She takes in the deep, dark circles under Rey’s eyes and the way Rey looks like she might topple over at any minute. “No, you’re not. Rey,  _ I’m  _ the one telling  _ you  _ to stop working. That’s how bad this is.”

Rey buries her face in her hands. “I just...I need to find Kylo, whoever he is, wherever he is, stop him for good, before he can hurt more--”

Rose rests her hand on Rey’s arm. “I know you care a lot about this city, Rey. But we both know this goes deeper.”

Rey sighs. She hates how everyone seems to be able to see right through her, even deeper than she can see herself. She doesn’t have to sort out the mess of her feelings about Kylo if she was staring at a computer screen.

“Please, Rey.” Rose forces Rey to meet her warm brown eyes. “Go home and rest. You’re not taking down any supervillains like this.”

Rey doesn’t want to go home. She doesn’t want to pick up her phone and see that it’s been flooded with worried messages from Ben. She doesn’t want to walk home, alone and in the dark, feeling like Kylo could be in any whisper of the wind, with the gun she now carries unbearably heavy. She doesn’t want to find Ben nervously staring at the door, lately refusing to go to bed until she’s come home. She doesn’t want to finally relent after he insists on tending to her mysterious wounds, wishing for some way to deflect his concern. She wants to stay here forever, where she can believe she’s doing something useful and she’s unburdened by relationships that give her headaches.

Rey slowly shakes her head. “I can’t go home.”

* * *

“You’re not supposed to be here yet,” Rose grumbles.

Rey shrugs. “I thought I’d get a headstart.” Shafts of golden afternoon light still shot through plumes of dust. Rey peers at Rose. “What are you doing, anyway?” 

Rose hefts the glider on her arm. With the wings retracted, it almost looks like a normal backpack. “Setting a trap.”

“You’re what?”

Rose carries the glider towards the back of the warehouse, setting it in an alcove surrounded by concrete on all sides but one. “Kylo’s tearing up the city looking for expensive tech. I leaked some info about this baby on the dark web, and with any luck he’ll drop by. I’m guessing we won’t even need this as bait though, if you’re here.”

Rey’s face reddens. She doesn’t want to ask what that comment meant. “You’ve worked on that for months and you want to risk it?”

Rose glances at her. “If it stops you from pulling all-nighters in here.”

Rey smiles. She truly doesn’t deserve Rose. “So what are you thinking? Force-field, motion sensors, electroshocks?”

“Just you.”

“What?”

“He’ll smell all that stuff from a mile away. You’re going to have to take him down alone.”

Rey’s breath catches. Alone with Kylo, again. Finally, a chance to make him pay for his crimes. A chance to end his reign of terror for good. So what is this warmth in her chest?

“Don’t worry.” Rose claps Rey on the arm. “The space is too small for him to whip out his scary laser sword. Besides,” she gestures at the piles of machinery littering the warehouse, each casting long deep shadows. “I’ll be nearby.”

Rey nods. “Thank you, Rose.”

* * *

It’s a moonless night, and the darkness is almost thick. Rey perches on a high windowsill, eyes trained steadily on the alcove. She does not tire. She does not move. She will be ready.

At last he appears, glowing like a beacon in the night in Rey’s thermal vision. His footsteps echo through the empty cavernous space. There’s no attempt at stealth here.

She watches him enter the alcove and run his gloved fingers along the smooth surface of the glider. She creeps up behind him, utterly silent, ready to strike. There will be no chance for him to rattle her with his words this time.

“I thought you’d be here, Scavenger.”  _ Damn. _

Rey draws herself up, blocking his only exit with her body. “You’re going to pay for what you did,” she spits before she can bite her tongue.

“Am I?” Those hidden eyes pierce her again. “What have I done?”

“You know, you monster.” Rey snarls, disgusted. How dare he play innocent?

Kylo slightly shakes his head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He hesitates, and his voice is softer. “Let me tell you.”

Her voice rises. “I know everything I need to know about you!” She unleashes her arsenal on him, and for once Kylo is brought to his knees, lightning sparking across his armor. But she knows by now that he’s nearly inhuman as he lunges upward, an unstoppable dark force pushing her back.

She unsheathes thin blades and fires blasts of energy, but everything shatters harmlessly against him. Kylo smoothly dodges all of her blows, balancing on his heels and never raising a fist. A primal scream erupts from somewhere within her and she flings herself at him, fueled by frustration and fury. Yet he is still as unmovable as stone.

In one fluid movement she is pinned against the wall, trapped between concrete and his body. Her breaths come in gasping heaves, her heart pounding. Rey searches his expressionless mask and wishes it would fall away again.

No. She’s not letting herself go through this again. Gritting her teeth, with all of her strength, she braces her palms against him and pushes him away. But she’s already failed. Kylo’s exit is opened, and he’s gone.

“Rey!” Rose rushes over. “Are you okay?” 

She tries to help Rey up, but Rey pushes her off, head spinning with too many thoughts. “Just...just check on the glider.”

Rose quickly scans the glider. “Nothing. Nothing’s different. Just like every other piece of tech.”

Kylo really is making this difficult. Rey groans and picks herself up, striding towards the door. “Where are you going?” Rose calls.

Rey taps her gauntlet and a holographic map of the city forms, drawing itself out of light. A pulsating red dot races through the streets. “Tracker. This is ending tonight, one way or another.”

* * *

Rey flies swiftly through the night, laser focused on the red dot that beckons her ever forward. Cold air whips past her so fiercely it almost seems to strip the skin from her bones. The streets seem unnaturally quiet, like the city is holding its breath for something. But Rey doesn’t have time to contemplate that. She’s caught the scent of her prey, and nothing will stop her from catching her quarry.

Finally, the dot settles, alighting on an old, dilapidated building not unlike the warehouse she and Rose had set up shop. It looks abandoned, shards of glass and chips of concrete littering the sidewalk. No tourists swing by this part of town.

Her tracker isn’t precise enough to tell her where Kylo is inside. All she knows is that everything she’s searching for could be inside that building. Dropping silently to the ground, she leaps through a broken window, trying to steady her breathing. Night vision reveals shapes in haunting green, but the shadows still twist them into claws and fangs. She darts from shadow to shadow, pressing onward into the darkness.

A heavy, rusted steel door looms in front of her. With her reinforced gauntlets, Rey drags the door open. It creaks much more than she likes. Orange light spills out of a larger room, this one dimly lit. It seems to be empty, containing only a couple stacks of metal boxes, the tallest easily a few feet taller than her.

Rey carefully lifts the lid off of one. It glitters inside. She runs her fingers through its contents, transparent flakes that brightly shimmer every color of the rainbow even in the dull light. They seem fragile, like snowflakes that will dissolve in her hand.

“Hey, Rose?” Rey whispers. “You seeing this?”

“Yeah.” Rey watches her HUD shift as Rose briefly takes control of her goggles remotely, laser shafts running across the glassy substance. “I had my suspicions, but wow.”

“What is it?”

“Kyber. Super rare. It’s amazing at amplifying any kind of energy: sound, light, electricity, anything.” Rose falls silent for a moment, and Rey can almost hear her brain working. “Yep. Just checked. Trace amounts of kyber missing from the glider. Kylo’s smart; scans wouldn’t pick up the difference unless you’re directly looking for it.”

“So you use this stuff?” 

“Yeah. A lot of really advanced tech has it. A lightsaber’s got a crystal of it inside too. So did the Death Star, just on a way bigger scale.”

Rey shudders a little remembering the superweapon that had terrorized the city when Luke was still around. It was years before she was born, but the memory stayed in the city’s nightmares. “So is that what Kylo and his gang are trying? Building another Death Star?”

Rose is quiet. “I don’t know.”

Rey is about to say more when she hears low footsteps echoing through the space, accompanied by murmuring voices. A thrill of adrenaline shoots through her as she quickly replaces the lid and ducks behind the nearest pile of boxes. 

The voices grow louder and enter the room. Kylo’s distorted baritone is unmistakable, but there’s someone with him: higher-pitched and nasally. The voice seems oddly familiar to Rey, but she can’t place it. She chances a glance and recognizes the shock of red hair. Hux. Of course. She knew there was something suspicious about that weasel.

Rey holds her breath as they draw closer. She catches snippets of their conversation, or rather argument.

“The Supreme Leader will not be pleased,” Hux seethes.

Kylo’s voice remains even. “I don’t consider this a setback.”

“Not a setback?” Hux’s voice rises to a screech. “Either deal with the girl quickly, or leave her! He will come whether she stands in our way or not. Your  _ obsession  _ is getting out of hand.”

Kylo stops, and even Hux can feel Kylo’s eyes burning behind his mask. “Your political ambition has not quite played out yet.” Anger bubbles just underneath the surface in his voice.

“Careful, Ren,” Hux spits. “You betray more than you think.”

Kylo turns away. He’s done with this conversation. “I’m sure the Supreme Leader will understand the delay.”

A grimacing smile twists Hux’s face. “Explain it yourself.” As he strides away, the room is suddenly bathed in a blue glow. A throbbing hum fills the air.

Rey cautiously peeks out from behind her stack of boxes. Kylo now kneels before an unsteadily flickering hologram. Her breath catches. The face that looms before Kylo is like nothing she’s ever seen. The flesh is scarred and shredded, as if mauled by a beast or perhaps something much worse. It looks like it’s barely keeping the misshapen skull together. Beady cruel eyes glare out of sunken sockets. Like something that once was human, but now unnervingly not quite. Something that death had gotten its claws into.

“Kylo Ren,” its voice intones, rattling Rey’s bones. “Your failures irritate me.”

“Supreme Leader--”

“Enough of your excuses, boy.” The yellow sickly eyes narrow. “Do not forget that I see your every thought. I feel your conflict. I feel how you are being torn apart. I feel how it weakens you.” The thin lips pull back in a sneer, revealing rotting mangled fangs. “Take off that mask.”

Kylo trembles a little as he silently obeys. Rey sees dark waves of hair, but his back is still turned to her. A small part of her wonders what it would feel like to run her fingers through his hair.

“Look at you, so fearful. Pathetic.” The horrible face leans closer, as if it intends to swallow him up. “Kill everyone who stands in our way. Even the girl.  _ Especially  _ the girl. Only then can I make you into something greater. Only then can your soul be forged into something stronger. Something that is not  _ broken _ .”

The monster retreats, crumbling away. Kylo stands, still trembling. His fist works tighter, threatening to tear the leather glove. Rey silently begs him not to put the mask back on. She is about to finally find what she’s looking for. He doesn’t.

Kylo Ren turns, and Rey stares into the haunted eyes of Ben Solo.

She claps a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream, stumbling backwards into boxes, making them scrape against the floor. But he doesn’t seem to hear. Kylo--no, Ben,  _ Ben? _ \-- strides away nevertheless. Her skin feels feverish and she feels cold. Her heart is beating too fast. Tears carve gouges down her cheeks. Suddenly her armor is strangling her. 

Her thoughts have become a maelstrom swirling in her head. This is impossible. It has to be a lie, some cruel trick being played on her. The two men she knows, she  _ loves _ , are as different as day and night. But above all the screaming questions, she can’t get Ben’s eyes out of her mind. Glassy, like that monster had sucked the life out of them.

* * *

Rey walks the streets alone. She doesn’t even go to headquarters first. Rose saw everything through the goggles anyway. She wanders through the city, numbly peeling off bits of armor until she looks like a ghost in her white underwear. Anybody around would’ve thought her insane. But no one is around. Only the silent stars and the occasional scuffle of a raccoon keep her company.

Something strange comes up from her gut, threatening to vomit out. A strange concoction of grief and horror. At all the things she never knew and all the things she thought she knew. The night itself circles her, like a hungry wolf on the prowl. Her knees feel weak. Everything is crumbling away. She’s cold and exposed, until she no longer feels.

Although she wanders aimlessly, not knowing where she wants to or can go, Rey somehow finds herself before the massive mahogany door of her house. Instinct prevailed after all, or maybe some guardian spirit had taken pity on her. She fumbles with the lock and steps into the darkened foyer. She’s been tense all day, and even in her home her muscles would not relax. Perhaps this is the worst thing Kylo could have done to her. She had no safe places left.

Exhausted and yet on edge, Rey manages to find a closet, burrowing through shoeboxes for a place to stash the armor she still cradled. Force of habit, really. She has no more secrets left. As she begins to peel apart layers of cloth, she finds what she had accidentally wrapped into the center of the bundle. The gun. Like a deadly pearl in an oyster’s rotten core.

She slips trembling fingers around it. It felt heavier than usual, but right, in a way. Rey had never been able to bring herself to practice with it, but it already felt like an extension of her. She could put an end to all of this, now. Just one piece of lead could give her mind rest.

With silent footsteps and the gun weighty in her palm, she moves towards the bedroom. Only the barest hint of blue starlight guides her way. The door is ajar. She opens it wider, sending creaking echoing through the empty hallway. Rey raises the gun. Her finger rests on the trigger.

He’s asleep. He didn’t wait for her tonight. Shadows flicker on Ben’s pale face, framed by dark hair. He looks peaceful, innocent even. Rey searches for a hint of the anger that darkened his features earlier tonight but can’t find a trace. He looks the way she remembered he did on their wedding night and every night after. Just a small movement and his face would be streaked with blood.

Her hand loses feeling and the gun clatters to the floor. Rey sinks to the floor, tears springing forth yet again. Her teeth draw blood from her knuckles as she shudders, wracked by silent sobs. Ben doesn’t stir. All she wants to do is lie next to him and be held by him and drift off to the fantasy past when there was no Kylo Ren or Scavenger or anyone else.

But she can’t. She doesn’t think she ever can again. She can’t forget how he looked like someone she didn’t know tonight. Casting one last look at her once-perfect husband, Rey recedes back into the night.

* * *

When Ben wakes up in the morning, he finds three objects on the nightstand. A gun, hard and cold. Rey’s wedding ring, the gold softly glowing in the dawn. And a note, written in Rey’s handwriting.  _ Don’t come looking for me, Kylo Ren. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	6. Chapter 6

Rey raps her knuckles on the door.

Finn opens it, rubbing his eyes. He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. “Hey, Scavenger. Thanks for coming. I know this isn’t really your thing, but--”

She glances into his office and her heart stops for a moment. Ben is sitting in a flimsy plastic chair, elbows on his knees, head bowed. Almost as if he’s praying.

Rey tries not to let her voice quiver. “So, Mrs. Solo’s disappearance?”

“Yeah.” Finn sits back down at his desk. “I know you have more important things to worry about than missing persons, but she’s--”

“I know, Finn, I watch the news.” Rey steps into the office and Ben looks up at her. She searches his face for something, anything. Confusion, discomfort, hostility, any recognition of the ridiculousness of discussing a disappearance with the disappeared. Nothing. His face is completely passive. Rey averts her gaze before Finn can see how her heart is shattering into a thousand pieces.

“We have no leads.” Finn sighs. “No clues.”

Rey crosses her arms. “Does Mr. Solo have any ideas?” She still isn’t looking at him.

Ben shakes his head. “There was no warning or reason I can think of. I went to bed with Rey next to me and woke up the next morning with her gone.” He lies effortlessly and utterly convincingly. It’s infuriating. 

“Just...keep an eye out, would you?” Finn begs.

“Yeah.” Rey nods. “Sure.”

Ben stands up. “Thank you for your efforts in advance,” he says politely, extending his hand. Rey manages to muster up enough courage to look into his eyes again. How could he be so cruel? She’s heartbroken and disoriented while he stands a few feet in front of her, speaking to her like she’s a stranger.

Rey only nods again, not trusting herself to speak without weeping. She turns around and walks out, leaving his hand hovering in the air, unshaken.

* * *

“You don’t have to keep going like this.”

“Yes I do.”

“No, you don’t. When was the last time you slept?”

“Last night.”

Rose sighs. “Crashing on my couch for two hours isn’t sleeping, Rey.”

Rey chooses to focus instead on firing her grappling hook on the next building. “I just need to find Kylo and this will all be over.” She knows it won’t, though. She has no idea what she’ll do if she finds him. Arrest him? Kill him? Somehow make him acknowledge at all the storm he had unleashed inside of her?

The tracker on her wrist pings. Rose calibrated it to track kyber energy signatures, and it had found a shipment moving through a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Find Kylo first. She would figure out how to heal her heart later.

Rey pulls open a grate on the wall and carefully crawls into a ventilation shaft. The tracker begins to beep more insistently. She’s getting close. Voices float toward her, carried by the cold wind, but distorted by the thin steel walls. 

She carefully, silently drops down onto a mountain of boxes. Kylo’s right there, tensed in anger. She freezes and the now familiar grief comes clawing up her throat again. But he doesn’t notice her. He’s too absorbed in an argument with who she assumes is the smuggler handling the shipment.

“You’re being unreasonable,” Kylo growls.

“Take it or leave it, kid.” The smuggler isn’t intimidated. He’s old, with a rough face and worn eyes that have seen too much.

Kylo’s lightsaber explodes to life in his hand. The angry blade comes up next to the smuggler’s neck, but he still isn’t fazed.

“You think you’re scary?” He barks a derisive laugh. “I’ve faced worse than you.”

“Kylo!” Thankfully, Rey’s voice doesn’t crack. He whirls to face her, lightsaber still hissing.

Rey glances at the smuggler. “Leave.” He doesn’t need to be told twice.

Kylo studies her for a long moment. Silence hangs heavy between them, weighted with pain and longing. Despite her mask, Rey feels exposed.

Finally, she finds her voice. “I don’t want to fight.”

“Good. I don’t either.” Kylo’s lightsaber fizzles out. She’s momentarily surprised that he agreed so quickly.

His mask clangs to the floor. “There’s no point in any of these pretenses anymore.”

Hesitantly, Rey unmasks too. Tears blur her vision, but she holds Kylo’s gaze. She recognizes nothing in his eyes except the haunted look she saw a few days ago. She reaches for something deep inside her that will stop her from falling to pieces and finds only anger.

“Why did you lie?”

Kylo’s face briefly contorts. “I don’t think I did.”

“So what, you just forgot to mention that you’re secretly a supervillain?”

“Is withholding the truth the same as lying? Haven’t you done the same, Scavenger?”

Rey scoffs, deflecting the question. “Why? Why all this? Why run around in a mask terrorizing people?”

Kylo works his jaw. When he finally speaks, it’s slow and deliberate. “Do you know what it’s like, Rey? To be the child of the most famous family in the city? To have everyone’s eyes on you, all the time? To know that every misstep could be tomorrow’s headlines?” He speaks so softly she almost can’t hear him.

“So that’s what this is? A temper tantrum?”

Kylo seems unbothered by her barbs. “No. Just...making something that’s my own.” He looks up at her through tangled lashes. “Don’t you remember when we met?”

Rey tries to repress the flood of memories but they come anyways. She remembers the tiny rundown repair shop she and Rose owned, barely breaking even on most days. She remembers the first time Ben walked in, with his cleanly tailored suit, looking entirely out of place in this part of town. She remembers the way he looked at her and instantly forgot whatever he had come in there to do.

“You were nobody.” Kylo’s voice was husky and laden. “But you were free.”

Rey can only shake her head as tears well up again. None of what he’s saying makes sense to her, yet it absolutely does.

Kylo can see that she doesn’t believe him. He sighs softly. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

“No. I don’t.” Rey’s voice breaks. “Because you were living my dream. The dream of so many kids in this city. You had parents that loved you, that were around, and you...you’ve…” She draws in a shaky breath, wiping her eyes.

“You’ve been so desperate to climb up the ladder your entire life, Rey.” Kylo speaks so softly she almost can’t hear him. “You’ve forgotten how good it can be to disappear.” He slowly kneels down, picking up his mask again. “There are too many strong emotions here. It would likely be best to end this conversation now, Rey, before I unintentionally hurt you.”

Rey lets out a watery laugh. “You’ve called me a desperate nobody. I think we’re beyond that point.”

“Then I’m sorry,” he apologizes with quiet, earnest sincerity. “Some dreams are simply nightmares.” The mask slides over his face, and Kylo Ren becomes cold and emotionless once more. As soon as he is gone, Rey sinks to the ground and can hold back the tears no longer. The world feels like it’s crashing down around her again. She wants to reject all of Kylo’s words as lies, as the sinister machinations of someone who hates her. But she knows that isn’t true. And she knows that if she accepts their truth, they just might break her.

“Well. You two are quite the couple.”

Rey looks up through blurry tears to find that the old smuggler had returned. She has no energy left to care about the complicated tangle of secret identities. “What, you recognize us from the news or something?”

“Nah.” He leans on the pile of boxes she’s slumped against, pulling out a cigarette. “I may not go to the family reunions any more, but I still keep up with what’s going on.”

Rey looks at him, really looks at him this time. She realizes she recognizes his sharp eyes and slight smirk. She’s only seen them frozen in photographs before they were worn down by the years, but she recognizes them.

“You’re Han.”

He blows out a cloud of smoke. “The one and only.”

“What...what are you doing here?” Rey gestures around them. Han was the husband of the mayor. Someone who married into the ridiculously wealthy Skywalker clan. Why is he here running illicit cargo on the edge of town?

Han shrugs. “Got bored, I guess. Went back to the only thing I’m good at. I’ve always been in more of the...morally gray area.” A long moment passes, punctuated only by the light hiss of ash falling from the cigarette. Rey leans her head back, thinking about morally gray areas.

Han glances at her tear stained cheeks and his craggy features softens. “Don’t worry, kid. It’ll work out.” He says it like it’s a simple, obvious fact.

Rey can’t help letting out a laugh choked with tears. “Didn’t you see us?”

Han shakes his head slowly. “I left when Ben was in college. Just got up and left. Not, uh...not my proudest moment.” He studies the glowing, shriveled tip of his cigarette. “Not the last time I saw him though. Showed up the day before your wedding. The boy certainly was surprised.” Han laughs softly to himself. Rey shifts, interested. Ben’s never told her this. “I dunno. I just wanted to make sure he was gonna be okay. But when I saw the way he talked about you, that crazy look in his eyes...I knew. I knew you were gonna take good care of him. You two got that once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing. That one star that’s brighter than the rest in the sky.”

Rey pulls her knees closer to her chest. “I think that thing’s gone.”

"No.” Han says everything so matter-of-factly. “That star doesn’t ever burn out. I’ve seen you two. You’ll see too.” He sighs, flicking his cigarette. “You find that thing, you don’t ever let it go.”

“I think he’s already gone,” Rey murmurs.

Han only smiles sadly. “No one’s ever really gone.” He gives her shoulder one quick squeeze and begins to walk away.

Rey gets to her feet. “Didn’t you let go of Leia?”

Han stops, glancing back at her. He tosses away his cigarette. “No. I don’t think I have.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was ridiculously hard to write for some reason

Rey’s fists connect, over and over. She lunges out of the way as bullets whiz by her head. With a flying kick, a gang member yelps in pain and stumbles backwards, blood spurting from his nose.

Every muscle burns and her lungs feel like they’re about to collapse. The cloth wrapped around her armor is drenched in sweat, making them suffocating. But still, she forces herself to push through the pain. Her knuckles smart from blow after blow, and three criminals appear for every one that she knocks down, but still she continues.

Suddenly, she misjudges and her foot lands on the cement wrong. She trips. A bullet slams into one of the few chinks in her armor. She sucks air through her teeth as it explodes into a stinging blast of electricity, knocking her to the ground. Her enemies dissolve into flecks of light.

Groaning, Rey picks herself up from the ground as the simulation shuts off. She steps out, looking to where Rose sits at the controls. “How did I do?”

Rose hesitates. “Well, the force of your blows is definitely--”

“How did I do?” The question is laced with hostility this time.

Rose sighs. “62 percent of your usual capability.”

Rey spits curse words under her breath. She tears off her mask.

“Look, Rey, don’t beat yourself up. You’re not in a good place, and you’ve--”

“I don’t need your pity, Rose.” Rey snaps. She draws in a trembling breath. Every bone aches. “I need--I need--” She has no idea what she needs.

Seething, Rey storms towards the door, pulling on a jacket and stuffing her mask into the pocket. Maybe fresh air would help. Rose could only helplessly watch her go.

It’s sunny today. Winter is starting to melt into spring. Rey paces the street, the few pedestrians also out today ignoring her. A headache is spreading through her skull. With little to focus on, her mind inevitably returns to what Han had said. What Kylo had said, too. Damn Solos. They always seem to know just what to do to throw her world off-kilter.

Suddenly, Rey hears a small scuffle. She whips her head around to see a figure retreating into a nearby alley. Her curiosity piqued, Rey follows.

A boy spins to face her, eyes wide and cheeks reddening. He can’t be more than ten years old. “Hey,” Rey calls, lifting her hands. He squirms like a cornered cat. “Are you lost? Where are your parents?”

He chews his lip nervously, eyes darting around. Suddenly, Rey recognizes the high, stark gray walls that rise up around her. Her heart drops like a stone. She hasn’t thought about the orphanage where she spent her childhood in years, and in an instant she is a scared little girl again.

“You’re...Mrs. Rey, right?” The small voice brings her crashing back to reality.

“Yeah.” Rey kneels down next to him and tries to smile. “What’s your name?”

“Tem--Temiri.” He suddenly becomes very interested in digging his toe into the cement. Then, when the words start flowing, they don’t stop. “So--sorry for following you, I just...Ms. Kanata says that you used to be like…” His caramel eyes finally meet hers. “Me.”

Rey smiles for real now, remembering the old schoolteacher that often visited. The only kind adult she had known for eighteen years. “Yeah.”

He continues speaking in quick, breathy gasps. “I see you on TV, and you just seem so not...alone. Not...nobody.” Rey can see that he has the same aching desperation she had for so many years. Still does, in some ways. 

She doesn’t know if her heart can break anymore after the past few weeks she’s had, but it does anyway. It’s different this time though. Before she knows it, she’s pulled Temiri close to her, burying her nose in his soft hair. She feels his stiff, shivering body relax under her touch. “You’re not nobody,” she whispers. “You were never nobody.” She feels like she’s saying it to herself just as much as she’s saying it to him.

She pulls away, smiling and blinking back tears. As she does, her mask slips out of her pocket, falling to the ground. Temiri’s eyes flick down to it and back to her, somehow even wider now. Rey laughs softly. “Can you keep a secret?”

He nods, dumbstruck. Rey Solo, orphan and celebrity and superhero. She leaves a light kiss on his forehead, along with a silent promise for all the lost children of this city. As long as she’s around. 

“Temiri! Boy, where are you?” Rey winces a little at the grating voice. Mr. Plutt isn’t a pleasant memory.

“You should go,” Rey says. Temiri’s lip quivers but he nods. “Don’t worry,” she tells him. “We’ll see each other again.” His face brightens with the promise, and he reluctantly slinks away. Rey feels something warm, yet empty, open in her stomach. She desperately wishes she could whisk him away, whisk all of them away, from this awful place. But she can’t. Not now, anyway.

Her eyes sting and her thoughts are no less settled. Finally, she ducks into the nearest place that looks like she can sit down.

It’s a dingy, sleazy bar. The thick smell of cheap alcohol churns her stomach. She definitely isn’t here for a drink; a childhood of alcoholic foster parents will do that to you. She just wants a place to disappear, and this subdued crowd, drunk at midday, dejection hanging heavy in the air, where no one looks twice at her, is paradoxically perfect.

Rey settles in the nearest empty seat, next to some guy slumped over on the bar. She can’t see his face at all; it’s completely hidden underneath a pile of graying, unwashed hair. She assumes he’s dead. The bartender glances at her, but she shakes her head. He shrugs and goes back to washing glasses. He’s seen the look on her face on too many people who pass through here.

“Superheroes don’t show up here much,” a voice rasps next to her.

Rey jumps. The tangled mass of hair next to her lifts, revealing tired, bloodshot eyes and an unkempt beard. So he isn’t dead.

She shifts uncomfortably. “How’d you know?” He lifts an eyebrow, jabbing a finger at the strips of cloth that hang out of her jacket. Rey sighs. Her quick disguise really is pitiful.

“Don’t worry. I don’t care.” The drunk lifts the glass of tepid whiskey next to him to his lips and takes a sip. He makes a disgusted face and sets it down again. “I don’t care.”

Rey nods, silently thanking him for his secrecy. She studies her hands.

“Why do you care?” She jumps a little at the question. It unnervingly echoes Kylo’s, on the roof of the Capitol building. The drunk’s eyes are still bleary, but now seem strangely bright.

She begins to say the typical, rehearsed answer ( _ it’s the morally correct thing to do _ ) but it falls flat in her mouth after these past few weeks. She picks at her nails. “I...I don’t know.”

“Doesn’t seem to have much point to me,” he grumbles, then suddenly half-heartedly chuckling at a joke Rey didn’t hear. He swirls the unappetizing whiskey in his glass and decides to drain it anyway. “Beat down the big bad, someone bigger and badder shows up tomorrow.”

“Maybe that one more day everyone gets to have is worth it.”

“Is it? Is postponing the apocalypse just a little worth all those blood and tears?”

Rey’s mind returns to Temiri’s shining eyes and small, shy smile. “Yes. I think it is.”

The drunk shrugs. “What if you’re wrong?”

“What?”

“Everyone thinks they’re right.” He fixes his gaze on her. “What makes you more right?”

Rey exhales. “I don’t know. Faith, I suppose.”

“In yourself?”

“No.” Rey’s learned that relying wholly on herself is a fast-lane ticket to burnout or worse, egotism. “In goodness.” She hesitates. “Love.”

He laughs again, but this time it doesn’t feel at her expense. “You’re a better hero than I ever was, Rey. Here’s to hoping you don’t end up a sad drunk like me.” He raises his empty glass, seemingly not realizing Rey doesn’t have one. She has to awkwardly clink her knuckle against his glass.

Her brow furrows in confusion. “Wait, did you say--”

He interrupts. “You should probably go save the world and all that.” He nods towards the window, where a pedestrian runs by.

Rey hurriedly gets up, but a hand on her arm stops her. The drunk is holding something out towards her: round and gleaming silver. It takes her a moment to recognize it as a lightsaber.

He shrugs. “You’ll have better use for it than I will.”

“Luke.” The name is a barely audible whisper on her lips. Her breath hitches in surprise. So this is what became of that bold young hero? 

She gingerly takes the saber. It’s heavier than she expected.

A low growl cuts through the sleepy whispered conversations of the bar. Kylo. Rey almost thinks she feels the lightsaber vibrate in her hand as it senses its infuriated rival.

Luke winces a little. A bit of the old sadness settles over him again. Rey senses there’s painful history there that he wants to leave unsaid. But he is Kylo’s uncle, and she’s desperate for a concrete real answer. 

Luke sees her questioning eyes and nods. He sighs. “Ben’s always been a….a troubled kid. Probably saw this coming. Probably could’ve prevented it. But I didn’t.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “I probably just made it worse.”

It’s still incredibly vague, but now is not the time to press the issue. Luke tries to smile. “Don’t give up on him.” He laughs bitterly. “Sounds hypocritical, coming from me. But don’t give up on people. I learned that a long time ago.” His gaze turns wistful. “Go save the world. Even for the old drunks like me.”

Rey pulls on her mask and sheds her jacket as Luke calls for another drink. Her fingers tighten around the lightsaber as she steps out onto the street, now empty except for one lone figure striding toward her. Kylo’s cloak billows in the breeze, his black visor staring back at her. Why is he here? He is as unreadable as ever.

“I need…” Kylo’s voice trails off as he notices the noon sun gleaming off the silver hilt Rey clutches. His stance tenses. He grips his blazing saber harder. When he speaks again, a current of anger runs underneath his voice. “Where did you get that?”

He’s angry. Good. Rey can deal with angry Kylo. Any other Kylo, not so much. Her thumb flicks over the trigger and the blade bursts to life, like a glowing blue beacon. She raises it, feeling its soft hum in her wrists, a stark contrast to Kylo’s crackling hiss. “Come and find out.”

He rushes forward, blindingly fast. His blade collides with hers, showering sparks. Rey’s never wielded anything quite like a lightsaber before, but it already feels like an extension of her body she always had. She parries and thrusts, almost instinctively. Her blade whirls around her in a beautiful, dangerous arc of light.

Kylo rains ferocious blows down on her. Every one of his muscles quivers with uncontrolled rage. Rey can recognize no fighting technique or strategy, only all-consuming fury. She’s never seen him like this. 

She backs up, attempting to scale a building and fight at the same time. Taking their duel to the rooftops and leading him away from pedestrian heavy areas. Kylo doesn’t seem to notice; he remains laser-focused on her. Unstoppable and deadly.

Rey has much better chances in a fight now that she has a weapon that can match Kylo’s, but still, she’s tiring and Kylo shows no signs of slowing. She leaps across buildings, trying to put some distance between her and Kylo. He’s in no rush to chase her down. He advances slowly, deliberately.

“Have you allied with him, then?” Kylo snarls. Rey is too out of breath to respond. “Has he sent you to kill me?”

Rey can feel the fury flooding from him, even from behind his mask. Something about the object she holds in her hand has unleashed something primal within him. But she doesn’t have the time to figure it out now. She hesitates a moment too long, and he easily crosses the distance between them, striding towards her with blazing saber held high.

Their lightsabers clash again, scarlet hissing against sky-blue. Rey’s arms feel like lead, and it takes everything she has to bring up her blade to parry each blow. Suddenly, the concrete under her feet rumbles. They’re by the railroad.

As a train screams by, deafening, Rey leaps into the air. She flips through the air, boots landing hard on the train’s metal roof. It snatches her away, buildings vanishing in a blur of tan. But not fast enough. Kylo stalks towards her from a few cars down.

She fires blasts of lightning at him, but they spark harmlessly against his lightsaber. It feels like he closes the distance between them instantaneously. She dodges his swings, letting him leave glowing molten slash marks on the train. Muffled screams begin to spill out from underneath them as their battle rocks the car.

Kylo drives his saber into the metal. It begins to buckle and groan as the steel crumples into soft orange. A high whine emits from somewhere as the train shudders even more unsteadily. Rey needs to end this fight now.

She throws a glance over her shoulder towards where the train is hurtling. A fork in the track is rushing towards them. Her HUD lights up with hundreds of calculations. Taking a deep breath, Rey lunges forward, slamming her foot into Kylo’s chest. It’s enough to make him stumble backwards. Whirling around, she fires a jolt of electricity at the point machine, a small plain gray box lying next to the track. It sparks and pops, short-circuiting and shifting the track.

A horrible screech fills the air as the train is nearly torn off the rails. Sparks streak through the air as it is forced to turn, writhing. Rey has managed to time it right. Knocked off-balance, Kylo is thrown off the train, disappearing among rising plumes of white smoke. Rey loses her footing too, but she’s lighter and manages to grip onto the edge of the car.

The train groans like a wounded animal and can take no more. It topples, collapsing into the gravel and grinding to a halt. Pieces of it flake off and something is burning. Passengers spill out, shaken but thankfully unharmed for the most part. Rey nimbly leaps to the ground, helping the last of them get out. She looks around for Kylo, but he’s vanished.

Rey sighs. He’s eluded her again. She turns and sharp pain cracks against her forehead, and the world goes dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're in the big oof chapters now

There’s a painful throbbing boring into the center of Rey’s skull. She groans. Wherever she is is dim, but it still feels painfully bright. She wants to rub her eyes but cold steel bites into her wrists. Handcuffs. 

Her thoughts are only coming half-formed, but she tries to figure out where she is and what happened. She’s still wearing her armor and mask, but the lightsaber and her tech are gone. She’s slumped in a flimsy metal chair, arms resting on a similarly flimsy table. The room is completely bare except for a thick door and a smooth window that stretches out in front of her, tinted opaque. A police integration room?

Her suspicions are confirmed when the door creaks open and Finn walks in. He looks more tired than ever, and like he would rather be anywhere else. “Hey, Scavenger. Sorry about all that. I told the strike team to use as little force as possible, but…”

Rey leans forward, wincing when pain spikes in her skull. She does her best to ignore it. “What the hell is this about, Finn?”

He glances down at the stack of paper he clutches, rattling off what it says like a robot. “Under the newly instated Restriction, Regulation, and Registration of Vigilantism Order, the vigilante commonly known as the Scavenger is charged with destruction of public property, assault, and disturbance of the peace.”

Rey stares at him and tries to work through each of his words. It doesn’t help that it feels like someone is pounding a nail into her brain. “You gotta come up with a better name than RRRVO. Doesn’t roll off the tongue at all.”

Finn sighs. “Don’t blame me. This is straight from the mayor’s office.”

“What?” Today was just confusion after confusion. “Why would Leia do this?”

He frowns at her. “Didn’t you hear? Hux is mayor now. Leia couldn’t exactly keep up her campaign in a coma, and the city council considered it a forfeit.”

Rey vomits a little in her mouth. “What!?” She shudders at the thought of that pasty greaseball having control of the city. She’s been so wrapped up in her own issues she hasn’t paid attention at all to the news.

Finn lets the papers fall to the table. “Look, I’m not happy about it either. But my hands are tied. I’m just following orders.”

“Just following orders,” Rey repeats. “I hope that helps you sleep at night.”

He decides not to respond to that. “You’ll have to spend the night here and we’ll meet with Hux tomorrow morning to sort all of this out.”

Finn leads her into the depths of the police station. He enters a small room, heading for the camera set up in the middle of it. “Up against the wall, please.”

Reluctantly, Rey positions herself against the wall streaked with height lines.

Finn winces. He looks as if he’d rather do anything else. “We’re, uh, going to need you to take off your mask for the mugshot.”

“What?” She searches the faces of the few officers who followed them for support but finds none. “No.”

Finn doesn’t meet her eyes. “Please.”

Fine. If the world wants to know all her secrets, she would let it. She reaches up, unwrapping the cloth from her face and lifting off the goggles.

Finn’s eyes widen briefly in surprise but he quickly tamps it down. He turns to the young woman standing next to him, blond hair wrapped around her head. “Lieutenant Connix. Would you, uh, go file the necessary paperwork to close the missing Rey Solo case, I guess.”

She nods and strides out. A few blinding flashes later, Rey is left in one of the temporary holding cells the police station has, alone. They’ve stripped her of her armor. She’s now wearing a gray t-shirt and sweatpants Finn dug up, but she still feels exposed. 

Rey leans against the cold hard concrete of her cell, with nothing to do but watch the orange light of the setting sun fade into black. The night stretches on, silent and lonely. It feels like it imprisons her just as much as the steel bars. Sleep only comes in fitful spells, with bizarre half-formed dreams with a leering Hux and Kylo, whose mask she wants to pull off but never can. 

After jerking awake for the fifth time, she decides to stop trying to sleep. She merely sits and waits for dawn. As each hour passes, she regrets not resisting arrest more. Hux can’t be trusted, and he seems to have the whole police force in his pocket already. She wonders if she should tell Finn that she’s seen Hux in league with Kylo and the mysterious Supreme Leader, but she doesn’t have a shred of proof.

At 4:26 AM (according to the digital clock set in the far wall and its piercing red light), she hears distant scuffling and shouts in the darkness. Her heart rate rises. What is happening?

She doesn’t see him until he’s right in front of her. She jumps back as he almost materializes out of the night, shadows solidifying into his armor and cape. Kylo stares at her for a moment and ignites his lightsaber. It hisses and spits sparks, melting the lock on the cell instantly.

He swings the door open. “Come on.” 

Rey hesitates. He can’t be trusted, but this might be her only chance to get out. “Why did you come for me?”

His mask tilts. He looks like he wants to say something, but decides against it. Wordlessly, Kylo begins striding away, and Rey has to hurry to catch up. 

There’s clearly been a fight, judging by the overturned cabinets with angry lightsaber scars. Cops sprawl on the floor, unconscious. Rey wants to check on them, but Kylo marches on, not waiting to see if she’s following. He hasn’t even bothered to stop the security cameras from watching his every move. He simply continues, turning a corner and nearly running into Finn.

Finn has the element of surprise and takes advantage of it. A gunshot rings out before Kylo can raise his saber. The next thing Rey knows, the lightsaber has clattered to the floor, and Kylo has sunk to his knees, left hand clutching his right. The back of his right glove has been torn open, and Rey can see blood beginning to pool.

Finn draws a shaky breath, but his eyes are hard. “Next shot goes through your skull.”

“Finn, stop.” Rey puts herself between Kylo and the barrel of the gun aimed at his forehead.

Finn’s eyes flick towards her, as if just seeing her. “Rey, what is going on?”

She holds his gaze. “You know Hux can’t be trusted. You know nothing good will happen when he arrives.” She decides not to mention the fact that Hux and Kylo are allies.

“So you’re trusting him?” Finn asks incredulously.

“He won’t hurt me,” Rey insists, but Finn looks at her like she’s sprouted a second green head. How can she explain that she feels she needs to go with Kylo, for reasons she doesn’t quite understand? “Kylo, take off your mask.”

She doesn’t look at him, but after a moment she can hear the soft hiss of his mask sliding off. Finn nearly drops his gun in surprise. 

Rey holds his gaze. “Trust me.”

Finn looks like he doesn’t trust anything that’s happening, but finally he nods. “If you’re sure, then.” He steps backwards. “You two escaped before I arrived.”

“Thank you.” Rey still doesn’t want to look at Kylo. She hears him get up behind her and hastily don his mask again.

An unmarked truck sits outside of the police station, engine still growling. Kylo opens the back doors and steps inside, looking back at Rey expectantly. She almost laughs. This is too cliche. But she has no other options, and allows herself to be swallowed up in the truck’s darkness.

The inside is dimly lit, bare except for one low bench set against a wall. As the train lurches and begins to move, Kylo tosses a bundle to Rey. It’s all of her armor and tech, even her lightsaber. He must have stolen it from where the police stashed it. “Wow. Why--”

“Change.” 

He turns around to give her some privacy. Despite everything, she can’t help smirking. “You know, you’ve seen me in less.” Too bad for the helmet. Rey would’ve loved to see him blush furiously.

Once all her armor and weapons are securely strapped on once more, except for her mask, which doesn’t feel right to put on right now, Rey awkwardly takes a seat next to Kylo. She unsuccessfully tries not to fall into him every time the truck runs over a pothole.

She notices he’s holding his hand at an odd angle. “Let me look at that.”

He hesitates. “I was just grazed.”

Rey grabs his hand anyway, peeling off the glove. The back of his hand is covered in torn skin and dried blood. She carefully wipes off any remaining dirt and blood and begins bandaging it with one of her cloths.

“Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

Kylo’s mask turns to look at her. “When you said I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Oh. Uh, yeah.” She realizes she had meant every word. She finishes with his hand but doesn’t let go of it yet. She absentmindedly traces her thumb along the bones, noticing that his wedding ring still shines dully on his finger. Even as Kylo he hasn’t taken it off. “It was in your vows, wasn’t it?”

“Do you still remember them?”

Rey allows herself a small smile. She allows her memory to take her back years, to a time that almost seems like a dream that never happened, when the sun gleamed off the calm surface of Lake Naboo and the breeze ruffled her hair and Ben’s warm hands slid a ring onto her finger. “Of course. You promised me...you promised me you would always be by my side. That you would never hurt me. That you would always give me a place to call home, and that you would always protect me.”

Kylo pulls his hand away. “I certainly haven’t lived up to those.” His voice sounds choked.

Rey feels her eyelashes grow wet. “I don’t think I have either.” Kylo looks down at his hands. “I promised to be someone you could turn to, someone who would always listen, that I would always be a shoulder you could cry on, even though you…” Something wells up in her throat. “Even though I thought you didn’t need one. I promised you I would always be by your side.” But she hadn’t, has she? Perhaps all these years, she has never really understood her husband. Perhaps she has never visited the demons that lurk underneath the surface.

A heavy weight settles in her stomach. “I’m sorry, Ben.”

He continues studying his bandaged hand. Rey is struck by how, despite his size, incredibly small he looks. His shoulders are drawn in and his cloak threatens to swallow him up. When he finally speaks, it’s almost a whisper. “You don’t have anything to apologize for. You’re the hero. I’m not. I never will be.”

“No.” Rey reaches out, turning his head so he is forced to look at her. Ben tenses, as if he wants to pull away, but he doesn’t. She lifts his mask off and looks her husband in the eyes, really looks at him, for the first time in a very long time. “You’ve always been a hero to me.”

He shakes his head and presses his lips together. He doesn’t believe her. “Please, Ben.” Desperation creeps into her voice. “Come home.”

“How can I?” His voice breaks. “Luke always distrusted me. And now I’ve proved him right. I’ve...I’ve gone too far. I’ve nearly killed you, and I put my mother in a coma, and I…”

“It doesn’t matter. The past doesn’t matter. Please, Ben.” Rey’s breaths come too fast. Her heart is breaking in a new way she didn’t know it could. “I need you to come home.”

She doesn’t know who started it, but suddenly his lips are against hers, and he tastes like blood and sweat and tears. Unlike either the Ben or the Kylo she knew, but something different, and something that feels right, for once. Rey pulls him closer to her, desperate, trying to tell him a million different things. For just a moment, nothing else matters. Not the past, nor the future. Just them, together.

The truck rattles, breaking their kiss. And then, all is still. They’ve stopped. Rey can hear footsteps crunch outside. The doors creak open, flooding the truck with moonlight that somehow feels blinding. The last face she wants to see right now appears.

“Good morning, Mrs. Solo.” Hux is wearing his typical sneer. “I trust you were as impatient for our meeting as I was?”

Rey glares at him. “Far from it.”

He ignores the insult. His eyes flick towards Ben, and the sneer fades from his face. He’s clearly never seen Ben unmasked. “Well. This is a lovely reunion. Ren, the Supreme Leader doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Ben stands, his face hard. “I know, Hux.” Hux tries to smile, but it ends up more like a grimace. He spins on his heel and strides away.

Ben glances back at Rey. She nods slightly. She would trust him. He looks down at his helmet, clutched in his fist. Then, with a sudden hiss, the blade of his lightsaber impales it. Ben lets it fall to the ground, mangled and shattered. Without another look at it, he steps out of the truck, and Rey follows.

They’re in a dark forest, a couple miles away from the city. Rey can see the lights of Coruscant twinkling faintly in the distance. But Ben leads her away from the city, deeper into the woods.

Rey can hear rustling and catches glimpses of dark shapes moving through the trees. They aren’t alone. This is a perfect place to carry out secret nefarious operations. A blue glow begins to filter through the trees. As they step into a wide clearing, she recognizes the leering face that shimmers in front of her. It’s every bit as grotesque as she remembered.

“Welcome!” The voice almost seems to shake the ground. Ben instantly falls into a kneel, leaving Rey standing alone. “I have waited long to meet the illustrious Scavenger.”

“Who are you?”

“I apologize.” The thin lips curve upwards into a smile devoid of warmth. “I have not properly introduced myself. I am Supreme Leader Snoke. My empire spans billions of worlds and trillions of beings. And now,” he snarls, eyes glinting menacingly, “my crusade of conquest will come to your puny world.”

Rey’s mind is spinning. An alien warlord, invading Earth? She only knows one thing. “I’m not letting you anywhere near here.”

Snoke laughs coldly. “Oh, I’m afraid you have no say in the matter. In fact, I’ve decided to use your lovely little city as ground zero for my invasion. After all…” His eyes slid to Ben, and then Hux, standing behind them. “So many of my friends are already here.”

Rey shakes her head, anger rising in her chest. He merely sneers at the fury spreading across her face. “Always the hero. Yet no one remembers the heroism of the defeated.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There is no hope. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain. But I...I could make your name great.” The misshapen face leans forward. “Command my army. Lead my forces. Your name will be known throughout the galaxy!” The cruel eyes stare directly at her. “Not bad for an orphaned nobody.”

Rey feels the glittering lure of temptation. She allows it to snag her imagination, thinking about what it would be like to be famous throughout the galaxy, to have everyone know her and fear her. No longer would she be pushed around or be neglected. No, she could do the pushing, she could be Mr. Plutt, Hux, Supreme Leader Snoke, cruel tyrant of the galaxy...

All for the simple price of the blood of everyone she loves.

She steels herself, looking into Snoke’s beady eyes. “I have everything I need.”

Snoke’s face contorts into a snarl. “So be it. You will burn with the rest of the city. _I am coming_.” He declares it like the final line of a prophecy, a warning of apocalypse from Scripture. With one last arrogant glare, Snoke fades away. 

The ground begins to rumble as a low growl fills the clearing. Hundreds of shadowy shapes rise from the trees, all easily bigger than her. Rey watches them climb higher and higher into the night. One side of each unfolds, and the inside surface glitters in the moonlight. Encrusted in kyber. 

What had Rose told her about kyber? It’s amazing at amplifying any kind of energy. The shapes rise until they are barely visible dots, forming a ring high in the night sky. They begin blinking orange light, almost like a message.

A message. That’s it. The shapes are satellites. And the kyber is boosting their signal, firing it lightyears into deep space...calling to something. Or someone. 

Rey hates that she’s right. Sharp daggers stab through the clouds, looking like they’ve appeared out of thin air. Warships. A dark cloud pours from them. No, not a cloud. A swarm. Thousands of black dots, racing down towards Earth, as hungry as a plague of locusts.

Rey’s heart feels like lead. Despite all her bravado earlier, this is unlike anything she’s ever faced. How could one woman fight off an army that had already conquered so many other planets?

She took a deep breath and prepared for the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	9. Chapter 9

“Well, that was wonderful, but I really must be going. Invasion to attend to and all.” Hux smiles his insincere smile. “Goodbye, Mrs. Solo.” Thugs emerge from the darkness, heavily armed, guns aimed at Rey.

“Running away?” she spits.

“At least I can.” With one last smirk, Hux strides away.

He’s right. Rey is cornered. She looks around for Ben, but he’s disappeared as well. Fine. She ignites her lightsaber.

It spins around her, almost like dancing, beautiful but deadly. It seems to have a mind of its own, slashing through bullets before she even knows they’re coming at her. Acrid smoke begins to fill the clearing as her enemies fall, one by one, under her glowing blade.

She leaps and slashes, adrenaline burning the exhaustion out of her limbs. A man comes at her, brandishing a handheld taser. Rey lands her fist on his nose and he stumbles backwards, blood spurting across his face. As he falls though, he manages to jab his weapon into her side. She grits her teeth, trying not to scream, as it feels like every muscle in her body contracts suddenly. Her legs suddenly don’t work and give way. A hard boot slams into her fingers, sending her lightsaber flying.

Sucking in breath sharply through her teeth, Rey looks up at the last gang member, his gun pointed at her forehead. All of her muscles still refuse to respond. His fingers tighten on the trigger.

Scarlet sparks blast through his chest. He slumps to the ground, sliding off of Ben’s lightsaber. Ben watches Rey get up with a strange mixture of desire and regret flickering across his face.

“Ben.” His name is just a whisper on her lips. She locks eyes with him, silently begging. It isn’t too late. Rey holds out her hand.

Ben presses her lightsaber into her hand. “Go.”

Rey hesitates.

“Go!”

She doesn’t really want to, but something makes her turn and run through the forest. Her breath hitches and wind and tears sting her eyes. Rey tears open the door of the nearest truck and clambers inside, quickly hotwiring it with the myriad tools Rose has hidden in her armor.

After flattening many, many tree roots, Rey finally finds her way out of the woods, coming to a cliff overlooking the city. She wants to cry. Alien craft fill the sky, balls suspended between flat flimsy wings, like great ugly insects. She watches them spit green fire, explosions blooming over their unlucky targets. Fires are already spreading across several sections of Coruscant.

Rey takes a shaky breath, pulling on her mask. The Scavenger would fight, one last time.

* * *

Finn can’t believe what he’s seeing.

He rubs his eyes, pinches himself, empties another cup of coffee. Nope. There are still things coming screaming out of the sky.

He pulls out his phone.

It takes three tries. Finally, Hux picks up, and his drawl is as pleasant as possible for Hux. “Good morning, Captain.”

“Sir? We’re...we’re under attack. This weaponry isn’t like anything I’ve seen, no nation is this advanced, I’ve ordered civilians evacuated but...are you listening to me?”

“Hmm? Oh, the alien invasion?” Hux says it like Finn has warned him it would be raining that afternoon. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it?” Finn is still stress-drinking coffee but it doesn’t stay in his mouth this time. “Are you seeing what’s happening? It’s--”

“I am well aware.” Hux’s voice is harder now. “The stormtroopers are here to...help.”

Blowing up buildings is a funny way of helping. A headache is starting to build between Finn’s eyes. “Sir, I--”

Hux’s voice has lost all pleasantries now. “Captain Finn, you will not interfere in the invasion. That is a direct order.”

“But--”

“If I see a single officer out on the streets today, I will have you arrested for treason.”

A moment passes. Finn chews his lip. “Sir, who do you think is going to arrest me?”

“What?”

“Sorry, but we’re not going to sit back while our city burns.” He quickly ends the call, and probably his career too.

“Sir?” Finn looks up to see Connix, pale but with a grim look of determination. “We’re with you. What are we doing?”

He sighs. “We fight.”

* * *

“Come on, everyone, let’s move!” Finn grabbed a straggling child and raced forward through choking clouds of smoke. He has grown used to the constant screams. He fires shot after shot behind him, barely looking back to see if he hits anyone. The aliens march endlessly forward. Stormtroopers, had Hux called them? Finn would’ve thought them human, if not for the purplish blood that spurted forth when their skeletal armor is pierced and the strange way they carry themselves. They call out to each other in garbled hisses, firing streaks of red energy that singe Finn’s clothes.

He ducks behind a wall, handing off the girl in his arms. “Get them to a safe spot, Jannah. I’m gonna go back and help hold the line.”

When he gets there, the line is already breaking. Officers scramble out of the way as a starfighter comes careening out of the sky, belching thick plumes of black smoke. It slams into the ground, spraying glass shards and twisted metal across the street.

A figure emerges from the smoke, clutching a blue lightsaber. “Rey!” Finn rushes forward.

“Hey Finn.” She sounds exhausted but hides it as best she can. “How are things going?”

“Pretty bad! I’ve got--”

She interrupts him with a clap on the shoulder. “How about you fill me in after the party’s over?” Her gaze is back on the sky, still teeming with alien craft. “You got the ground?”

“No.”

“Cool. See ya.” She leaps, far higher than any human should be able to, and manages to hook her hands around a starfighter’s wing and swing up onto it like a gymnast. Finn sighs and returns to shouting orders.

The wind tears past Rey, threatening to fling her off the fighter, but she magnetizes her boots and holds on. Gripping her saber, she drives it down into the cockpit, hearing the pilot let out one last strangled scream. As the laws of physics begin to tear apart the ship midair, Rey leaps, using her cable to pull herself to her next victim. She flies from ship to ship, feet never touching the ground. But for every ugly spaceship she sends to its grave in the earth, ten more appear.

A fly can’t buzz around the bull’s head for too long without getting noticed. Laser cannons begin aiming at her, indifferent to the fact that she’s so small and fast that they hit each other more often than they hit her. Still, blasts of green energy narrowly miss her, and she can feel their blistering heat.

Rey balances on top of a wobbling fighter, feeling like she’s trying to ride an extremely dangerous mechanical bull. Suddenly, a lucky shot tears off one of the wings, making it vanish into a cloud of smoke and fire. Rey can do nothing except hold on tighter as her ride tumbles out of sky, screaming.

She braces every muscle in her body as the world seems to collapse around her. For a few terrifying moments, she’s encased in a swirling tomb of concrete, metal, and glass. Things pummel her body, but she doesn’t even have the time to register the pain. And then, everything is silent.

Rey groans. She feels like she’s just been forced through a wringer. Despite her armor, concrete dust coats every part of her body, even her throat. She pushes a couple chunks of broken cement and jagged metal off of her, gingerly trying to stand. Pain shoots through her left knee and she allows herself to sit down again, trying to figure out where she crashed.

It seems to be some old warehouse. She realizes she recognizes it.

“Rey!” Without warning, Rey is knocked back again, crushed underneath a massive hug.

“Ow. Ow. Okay. Hi to you too, Rose.”

She finally pulls back, tears glistening in her eyes. The words start to spill out all at once. “Oh my God, Rey, when I saw them, and you weren’t here, and--”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Rey tries to place a comforting hand on Rose’s shoulder, but it hurts too much. She’s glad her shattered mask still covers her face enough that Rose doesn’t see her wince. “Don’t...don’t worry about me. I can do this.” She tries to sound braver than she feels.

Rose lets out a breath and smiles. “I know.”

Rey blinks in surprise. “What?”

“I’ve seen you go up against impossible odds before, Rey.” Rose says it like it’s obvious fact. “You always come out on top. You can do this. I know you can. Just don’t die during it, please. No more crashing out of the sky.” 

Rey laughs. “All right. Will try not to, ma’am.” She feels something warm and fluttering expand in her chest, and she adds softly, “Thank you.”

She moves to stand up, but Rose swiftly yanks her back down. “Rose, I can’t--” But blue lasers are already tracing Rey’s body, and Rose is muttering to herself. 

“Well, you’ve got some fractured bones, honestly, a miracle that it isn’t worse, here…” Rose peels off parts of Rey’s armor and presses some sort of bandage to Rey’s skin. Rey feels a cold tingling spread through her body. “You’ll still need to get to a hospital later, but these should get you through the rest of the day.”

“Wow. Thanks. I really owe you.”

“You owe me so much. Be glad I’m not keeping track.” Rose gives her one last smile and jabs her thumb back towards her work bench. “Take the glider, would you? In case you decide to fall out of the sky again.”

“Thank you,” Rey repeats, once more, pulling on the glider. Retracted, it looks like just a small backpack. Something feels lodged in her throat, but before she can get it out a bang echoes from the other side of the building. 

Stormtroopers stream in, their helmets silent and emotionless. They raise their weapons, and small explosions begin to pepper the air.

“Get down!” Rey pushes Rose towards cover, pulling out her lightsaber.

“Rey!” Rose won’t let go of her hand. “You have to go. Now.” Rose points up at the gaping hole in the roof Rey inadvertently created. She can see something’s changed. The alien starfighters were mostly an overwhelming swarm earlier, but now they’re organized, flying in formation. “They’re heading for population centers. Hundreds of lives are at stake. I can defend myself. Go.”

Rey opens her mouth to object, but Rose has pushed her away. Rose pulls out blasters of her own, firing back at the invaders. Rey can only run once more as explosions rock the building. When she looks back, everything is hidden within thick clouds of dust.

* * *

The hot sun drags itself across the sky as the hours pass. Rey falls into a mind-numbing routine. Hundreds of ships fall under her blade, but there are always, always more. For every building she manages to defend, five others collapse. Exhaustion pulls at her muscles, but she pushes it away, whispering promises to her tired body that she knows she can’t keep.

The sun falls towards the horizon now, dimming into molten orange as it sheds flaming color across the sky. Unable to keep herself in the air any longer, Rey falls onto a rooftop. She allows herself to stumble and fall to the ground. She has barely slept in 36 hours, and now milky sleepiness curls around her head. Her armor is slick with sweat, threatening to suffocate her. Something hoarse crawls up her throat, but she doesn’t even have the energy to let it out.

She can’t. She just can’t. It looks like the whole city is burning now, succumbing to the flames of her own mistakes. Because she isn’t strong enough, and she’s failed. Tears blur her sight, and she’s thankful for the momentary reprieve from facing the cost of all she couldn’t do. Rose had believed she could, sure, but she didn’t even know if Rose is still alive, or where Ben is, or anyone. She’s absolutely alone, with only her enemies raining hellfire from the skies.

Rey looks around in desperation for something, anything, that could end this nightmare. The hospital, a few blocks away. Miraculously, only a few small fires burned near it. Well, she could go apologize to Leia. Leia deserved that much, at least.

The hospital’s hallways are filled with nurses and paramedics, shouting orders, trying to stabilize wounded civilians. But to Rey, they might as well have been empty. She pushes through the commotion, not hearing any of it. No one bothers her.

Leia’s room is darkened. Rey can see her breathing slowly, her chest rising and falling. Once again, the beeping of the heart rate monitor is her only companion. Rey settles in the chair next to Leia’s bed. Her hands won’t stop shaking. A sob wrenches itself free from her chest.

“I’m sorry, Leia. I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t enough.” It feels like unseen fingers are tightening around her throat. “I failed you. I failed everyone.”

Something brushes by Rey’s hand. She looks down and sees Leia’s fingers flutter, slowly tightening around hers. Leia’s grip is weak, but somehow Rey can still feel the strength within it.

Leia’s steely brown eyes open. Her lips move slightly. “Take off that mask. I want to see my daughter-in-law.”

Rey slowly pulls off her mask. “How long have you known?”

A smile fleetingly curves Leia’s mouth. “I knew it was you the moment they showed footage of the mysterious Scavenger on TV. No one else has your spark, your vibrancy.”

Rey shakes her head, tears choking her breath. “What does it matter? I lost. I’m not…” She remembered the confident young hero she had seen in pictures, blue lightsaber held high. “Not Luke.”

“Of course you’re not. Luke made his own path, and you need to make your own too. He failed too, didn’t he? I think you’ve seen that firsthand.”

Right. That drunk, who had given up on life, passed out at the bar.

“Everyone’s failed. I’ve failed too,” Leia says.

“You?”

Leia offers a wry smile. “When you enter politics at 19, you mess up a lot.”

Rey looked down at her hands, which had worked her mask into a tight ball. “But I'm...I’m nobody.”

“Nobody’s nobody.” Even when confined to a hospital bed, Leia’s eyes are piercing. “The lowest have toppled kings before. You have a light inside of you, Rey. One candle can hold back the darkness.”

Tears slide down Rey’s face. “I don’t think my light’s enough.”

“You must have hope.”

Rey’s eyes flick to the window. Even with the white curtains drawn, she can see the fiery orange bloom of explosions and the light of laserfire bleeding through. “I’ve lost my hope.”

Leia’s grip strengthens. “Hope is something you choose to have. If you only believe in the sun when you can see it, you’ll never make it through the night. I know it’s not fair, but the city is asking you to be strong once more. You can save us. You can save my son.”

Rey looks desperately at Leia. “There’s still a chance for Ben?” She had tried to get through to him, and thought she succeeded, but he had still looked so lost in the forest.

Leia holds her gaze steadily. “No one’s ever really gone. You know what you need to do.”

Rey nods. Somehow, she does. “Thank you.”

Leia’s head rests back against the pillow, as if this conversation has used the last of her energy. Rey silently prays that isn’t the case. Leia would get better. She always pulls through.

Rey looks down at her mask, still clutched in her fist. She decides to leave it at Leia’s bedside. Rey doesn’t need it anymore.

Several minutes later, Rey flies her hijacked alien starfighter up towards the sky. Alien tech is unlike anything she’s ever handled, but after all, every flying machine has four basic controls: power, pitch, yaw, and roll. It isn’t too hard to figure out. The wind whistles through the hole she cut in the roof as she heads back towards the forest.

She lands back in the clearing where the day started, but finds it completely abandoned. The only signs that people had been there were footsteps in the mud and trampled branches. She calls out for Ben, but only the rustling of the animals of the night waking up answer her. Dammit, where is he?

Her eyes are drawn up to the darkening sky, where the warships still loom, so black that they seem to suck in the light around them. The one in the middle of the fleet looks different: instead of being shaped like a dagger, it has spreading wings like a massive vulture. It also dwarfs the other ships easily. Rey has no doubt. Snoke must be there, and so would Ben.

Her starfighter screeches as she pushes, altitude rising rapidly. The air grows thin and cold, and Rey begins to regret sawing a massive hole in her cockpit. But she doesn’t have much farther to go. Thankfully, no one seems to take a second look at her, and she hopes her ship is still sending out all the right friendly signals.

Her engines sputter as she enters one of the flagship’s hangars and settles the ship onto the smooth metal floor. No one else is there. All the other fighters are busy blowing up her friends. Rey clambers out of the jagged hole, looking around. There, a grate. Alien or not, every spaceship needs ventilation. She quickly climbs up and begins crawling through the duct. 

As best she can tell, she’s in an exhaust duct. Rey begins moving against the flow of air, crawling deeper into the belly of the beast. She keeps her ears open for voices, but hears only garbled alien language. Nevertheless, she continues moving through the twisted labyrinth, knees and hands growing sore.

Just when she thinks she’s hopelessly lost, she hears words she can understand. Ben! Yes, that’s definitely his voice. Filled with new determination, she follows it until it sounds like he’s right below her.

Rey carefully pushes open the grate, silently maneuvering out of the duct. She quickly magnetizes her gauntlets and boots when she realizes she’s holding on to the very, very high ceiling of a massive room. The walls are draped in scarlet curtains, and directly beneath her is a black throne and the bald scabbed head of Snoke. 

“As I said, boy, you have nothing to worry about.” He reclines on his throne, utterly confident and at ease. In person, he’s not a massive floating head, but a thin humanoid, easily over seven feet tall. A golden robe hides his body, but it must be just as damaged as his face. The parts Rey can see, like his hands, where obsidian rings glitter, are just as scarred and disfigured.

“Ah, but I forget my manners.” Cold amusement tinges his voice. “We have a guest, and I have not welcomed her.” Ben, kneeling before the throne, looks up. Snoke raises a hand and curls his fingers. Rey suddenly feels a massive invisible grip around her waist, tearing her from the ceiling and throwing her to the ground. 

Rey gasps as she slams into the floor, pain rattling her bones. It takes her a moment to catch her breath. “How...how did you…”

Snoke laughs cruelly. “Silly girl. I have powers you pathetic humans could never dream of.” He rises from his throne, spreading his arms. “Welcome to the  _ Supremacy _ .”

Rey grits her teeth, trying to get up. She hasn’t really thought about what she would do when she found Ben; she just knew she needed to. But now she faces Snoke, who also apparently has telekinesis, if this couldn’t get any worse.

Snoke sneers as he watches her struggle. “Ah, you heroes never do give up, do you? It’s what makes you so charming.” The air thickens and presses down on Rey, crushing her.

She jerks up into the air, gliding across the room towards the wall. The curtain pulls back, revealing a window. “Look down on your city, little hero,” Snoke snarls. “See how utterly ruined it is.” He’s right. From up here, Coruscant looks like a smoldering patch on a black wool blanket, soon to be gone and quickly forgotten.

“No.” Rey strains and tries her best to fight against his control. “Not yet. I’m a scavenger. That’s what I do. Rebuild.”

Snoke’s malicious smile remains. “Is not the story of Carthage among the myths of this puny world? A great city destroyed, and the ground sown with salt, so that nothing may ever live there again. I tell you; I will do much worse. Can you succeed where the ancient Carthiginian civilization failed, orphan? A nobody?”

Anger flares in Rey, burning her throat. Everything Leia has told her has settled inside her like a glowing pearl, and now she draws on it for strength. “Nobody’s nobody.” She uses all of her strength, twisting out of his grip. She raises a gauntlet and blasts a shockwave at him. Snoke remains on his feet, but she only needs to break his concentration, and it works. His hold vanishes, and she charges towards him, lightsaber blazing.

Adrenaline pumps through her, and she leaps. Rey raises her lightsaber high, bringing it down with all of her might, ready to cleave Snoke’s head in two. But gravity suddenly fails her. She hangs suspended in the air, her blade humming just a few inches from Snoke’s nose.

“A valiant effort," he snarls, "but unfortunately you will have to do better than that.” He flicks his wrist, and her lightsaber is ripped out of her hand, clattering across the floor. Her body no longer under her control, Rey spins and skids across the floor, ending up at Ben’s feet.

“This has certainly been fun, but now I’m afraid we must say goodbye,” Snoke says with mock sympathy. Rey struggles, but her muscles refuse to respond.

“Now is your chance, boy,” Snoke snarls. “Kill the girl. Show me your loyalty. Show me your devotion. Show me that you are not weak, not  _ broken _ .” Ben stands, completely frozen, as if Snoke’s hold is on him instead of Rey. She looks up at him, her whole body aching with the force of her silent plea. His eyes are stormy, a quiet war raging behind them. In that moment, both feel that everything that had been left unsaid these past weeks suddenly flood through them. Tears glimmer in their eyes.  _ Please.  _

Ben’s fist clenches. His body rattles with each breath. His decision has been made. His lightsaber erupts in his hand, growling. He looks up at Snoke, ready to strike his killing blow.

“Supreme Leader, you made your mistake when you thought I would choose you over my wife.”

In one swift motion, Ben hurls his lightsaber. It spins through the air, shedding fiery sparks. Snoke’s eyes widen in surprise. He moves to stop it, but it’s too late. For all his meticulous planning, he has not planned for this betrayal. Whatever exists between Rey and Ben is enough to blow all his scheming apart.

The lightsaber slashes across his midsection. With one last groan, Snoke slumps forward. Dead.

Rey feels the grip on her loosen, and she unsteadily stands. Ben looks at her. He opens his mouth, ready to launch into an apology, but she doesn’t want to hear it.

Rey pulls her husband towards her and kisses him like they’re the only two people left in the universe.

After a long while, they finally pull apart. Ben’s eyes flick to her, still confused. “So, we’re…”

Rey laughs. A clear, genuine laugh, for once. “Ben. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.” He smiles, and Rey traces the curve of his lips. She hadn’t seen a real smile like that from him in a very long time.

A boom rattles the ship, as if to remind them that they are still in the middle of a battle. Rey hurries back to the window, looking down nervously at the city. 

“We need to take down the ship.”

“What?” Rey looks back at Ben.

He scowls in concentration, thinking. “The stormtroopers run on a hive mind. If we can take that out, we can take out the entire army.”

“Great. Where’s this hive mind?”

“I don’t know,” Ben sighs. “Snoke runs--ran-- on a very need-to-know basis. But I do know where the reactor core is. If we can overload that, it’ll destroy the entire ship.”

Rey nods. “Okay.” They don’t have any time to waste. She begins striding towards the door.

“Wait.” Ben grabs Rey’s hand. “The escape pods are on the third level.”

“What?”

Ben shakes his head, not meeting Rey’s eyes. “Rey...the reactor core is too far from the escape pods. We won’t be able to overload it and escape before the explosion overtakes us.”

Rey feels something cold settle in her stomach. “No. No.”

“It’s the only way. I’ll be happy just knowing you got away.”

“No!” Tears sting Rey’s eyes. “Ben, I just found you, I’m not letting you go again!”

“Rey, please.” His hand brushes her cheek. “Go. Live. This is what I deserve.”

She grabs his hand, her knuckles turning white as she grips his wrist. “Benjamin Solo, we are leaving here together. I came here to bring you home, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

His eyes meet hers, and they have become impossibly deep once again. “There’s no way.”

She presses his hand to her lips, feeling grief claw up her throat again. Then, it strikes her. “Yes, there is.”

* * *

The icy wind tears past Rey, and she feels like it’s about to strip her skin off. She can hear nothing except for its loud whistling, and even if she tried to speak the wind would snatch away her words and fling them far away.

But she doesn’t need to speak. Ben’s embrace tightens, and that’s all she needs. The wings of the glider shudder, looking flimsy, but Rey knows Rose’s engineering skill too well to distrust it.

They must look ridiculous, plummeting from the sky, locked in an embrace as the glider struggles to slow their descent. It’s awkward, but it works. They had made their way to the reactor core, set it to blow, blasted a hole through the walls and jumped. Now it’s all up to the glider, untested for this height and for the weight of two people, but Rey knows better than to doubt Rose.

Despite the wind’s howls, she hears a distant  _ foom  _ behind them. She doesn’t need to look back and watch flames erupt across the  _ Supremacy,  _ it’s wings slowly dip and descend, shedding dark plumes of smoke. She sees the orange glow reflected in Ben’s eyes and watches something like relief flicker across them, and that’s enough for her.

Rose doesn’t fail them. They stumble to a stop, right in the middle of Main Street, cheeks rosy from the cold and exertion. Just like Ben said, stormtroopers were slumped over everywhere, unconscious, like just old toys or something out of a bad dream.

“Rey!” For the second time that day, Rey is crushed under a massive hug. “You did it!” Rose is beaming. Her face is streaked with dirt and her clothes are torn, but her smile lit up the night. “Is that the glider?”

Rey laughs. “Yeah. It worked. You’re amazing.”

Rose’s eyes flick to Ben, and her smile wavers.

“Don’t worry,” Rey tells her friend. “It’s okay. We’re all okay.” Finn soon joins them, all exhausted, but glad that it’s finally over.

Ben glances around uncomfortably. He stiffens when he sees who’s coming down the street. “Oh no.”

“Benjamin Solo!” Her voice still rings. “Are you trying to hide from me?”

Ben is too big to hide anyway. He nervously looks at his mother as she hobbles toward him, leaning on a cane. “Mom, I’m…”

“Don’t apologize.” Her voice carries a quiet ferocity. “Don’t apologize.” She grabs him and pulls him down towards her, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

Ben nods, unable to speak. Leia wraps her arms around her son, and he melts into her arms. For a quiet moment, they simply stand together.

Rey looks at the two men who had been tailing Leia. Luke smiles at her, and Han merely nods gruffly. They go to join Ben and Leia. After decades, the Skywalkers are finally back together again. A family once more. Rey knows, deep in her heart, that no matter what, no matter what demons or monsters or aliens come their way again, they’re going to be okay. They could weather it together.

Suddenly, Rey finds herself pulled into the hug. She rests in the middle of their warmth, her family surrounding her, and Rey is happier than she has ever been. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> avengers 1 called, it wants its final battle back
> 
> seriously though, thank you to everyone who's read this far. thanks for all the kudos and comments and for letting me share the weird ideas in my head with you. there's just one more chapter after this, and it's very short and fluffy. no more angst for rey and ben, at least for now.
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the fluff i promised

On days like this, Ben feels like he can touch the sunlight. He could reach out, gather it in his hands, feel its warmth as he lets it filter through his fingers. But for now, he is content to watch its golden flecks dance across Rey’s cheek, choreographed by the swaying of the willow branches that hang above them.

He reaches out his thumb, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear and chasing a few flecks of sun. She murmurs sleepily, nestled on top of him. “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Staring at me.”

“Can I help it that I am continually in disbelief of this angel I get to love?”

She can’t suppress a giggle. “You're too cheesy. Get used to believing it.”

Ben presses a kiss into her hair. “Rey… I promise that I will always be by your side.”

She looks up at him. “No, Ben, you don’t have to…”

“Let me.” He whispers it, and not even a bee buzzing by could hear the words that are just for her. “I promise I will always be by your side. I promise I will never hurt you. I promise that I will always give you a place to call home. I promise I will always protect you.” He wraps his hand around hers, completely covering it, and smiles. “And that I will never become a supervillain behind your back again.”

“I’m holding you to that.” Rey tucks her head under his chin. “Benjamin Solo, I promise to be someone you can turn to. I promise to be someone who will always listen. I promise to be a shoulder you can cry on, even when I think you don’t need one. I promise to always be by your side. And should you become a supervillain again, I will do my best to bring you home.” She rests on his chest, feeling his heart beat steadily.

“I have something that belongs to you.” Ben reaches into his pocket, pulling out her wedding ring. 

Rey takes it, slipping it onto her finger. She decided there was something different about the sun here at Lake Naboo. Just like it had on their wedding day, the light coaxed shimmering colors she didn’t even know existed out of the pale diamond. 

“Still fits perfectly,” Ben says.

“My hand didn’t change sizes, you know. It always fit.”

“I know. But it’s still nice to see that it fits.”

Rey looks out over the glittering surface of Lake Naboo. Bright, as if someone had scattered silver over the surface. Her eyes trace the silver trail, resting on the small cottage on the far bank. They normally only spend one or two summer weeks here, but they’ve lived here for two months now. Both had agreed they needed to get out of the city for a little while, and away from the watchful eye of...everyone.

“How long do you think we’re gonna stay?”

“I don’t know,” Ben replies. “We can figure that out later. Together.”

“Together.” Rey interlaces her fingers through his. “I like the sound of that.”

She arches her neck up and their lips meet. Their bodies move together, in perfect unison. Slower and steadier now, with a different kind of passion than before. Not a flash of flame that burns out instantly, but a flame that could weather the night. They trace each other’s new scars and love them the same.

* * *

Rey takes a deep breath. She can do this. This place can’t hurt her any longer. She opens the door and steps inside.

“Mrs. Rey!” Rey catches a glimpse of tousled brown hair rushing towards her. 

“Hey, Temi.” She laughs as she scoops him up into her arms. “I’m glad to see you again!”

“Well, well, well.” Rey hates that the gravelly voice still has the power to make her heart lurch. “Look who’s come crawling back. Little Rey.”

She steels herself. “Hello to you too, Mr. Plutt. And since we’re both adults now, I believe the proper way for you to address me is Mrs. Solo.”

Plutt laughs, spittle flying. “What, you think you’re some big hotshot now? No, no. You’re still just as much that scared little girl you always were.”

Temiri’s grip around Rey’s neck tightens. “Come on, boy,” Plutt snarls. “You have more chores to do.” Temiri whimpers.

“Actually, that’s what I came here to talk about.” Rey keeps her smile plastered on.

Plutt’s bloodshot eyes narrow. “Chores? You wanna do some with your new friend here?”

“No,” Rey replies coolly. “There have been some serious concerns raised about your management of this orphanage and treatment of these children.”

“Oh yeah? You gonna do something about it? I’m in charge here!”

“Actually, I am.” Leia steps through the door. “This is, after all, a state-run facility.”

Plutt scowls. “You? You’re back?”

“Indeed. After the invasion, Mr. Hux suddenly, ah, found that he had other places he very much rather wanted to be. The city council has decided to reinstate me.” Leia pulled her shoulders back, into what Rey recognized as her fighting stance. “Now, Mr. Plutt, let’s discuss your stepping down and handing over management to Mrs. Solo here.”

* * *

Hazy in the distance, the sun settles down for the night. The cool evening air wraps around them.

“You two ready, you lovebirds?” Rose’s voice crackles in their earpieces. Rey had decided to keep only those from the masks. They’d both had enough of masks to last a lifetime.

Ben looks nervously over the skyline. Rey moves closer to him, intertwining her fingers through his. “Again, if you don’t want to do this…”

“No.” Ben glances at her. “I do. I want to give back. Make up for what I’ve done.”

“Okay.” Rey smiles at him. “Let’s go be heroes.”

Ben squeezes her hand and doesn’t let go. Together, Rey and Ben Solo leap off the roof and into the night, ready to face whatever may come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has read my first multichapter fic. i hope you enjoyed the ride, and i hope this fic entertained you a little in this crazy world we live in. see you soon, maybe in a sequel, you never know
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jedioncer?lang=en)  
> to hear me yell about other dumb things


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